python - Matplotlib boxplot using precalculated (summary) statistics

17
votes

I need to do a boxplot (in Python and matplotlib) but I do not have the original "raw" data. What I have are precalculated values for max, min, mean, median and IQR (normal distribution) but still I'd like to do a boxplot. Of course plotting outliers isn't possible, but beside that I guess all information is there.

I've search all over to find an answer without success. The closest I've come is the same question but for R (which I'm unfamiliar with). See Is it possible to plot a boxplot from previously-calculated statistics easily (in R?)

Can anyone show me how to do the boxplot?

Many thanks!

3
pythonmatplotlibboxplot
This functionality exists on the master branch and will be in 1.4 (which should be tagged 'soon'). github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/2643 - tacaswell
You don't need any special function here - just use the regular matplotlib boxplot function, since if your entire dataset only consists of e.g. the min, q1, median, q3 and max, then when it calculates the summary stats on the dataset, they will be those precise points! Try it and see. - user2739472

3 Answers

9
votes

In the old versions, you have to manually do it by changing boxplot elements individually:

Mean=[3.4] #mean
IQR=[3.0,3.9] #inter quantile range
CL=[2.0,5.0] #confidence limit
A=np.random.random(50)
D=plt.boxplot(A) # a simple case with just one variable to boxplot
D['medians'][0].set_ydata(Mean)
D['boxes'][0]._xy[[0,1,4], 1]=IQR[0]
D['boxes'][0]._xy[[2,3],1]=IQR[1]
D['whiskers'][0].set_ydata(np.array([IQR[0], CL[0]]))
D['whiskers'][1].set_ydata(np.array([IQR[1], CL[1]]))
D['caps'][0].set_ydata(np.array([CL[0], CL[0]]))
D['caps'][1].set_ydata(np.array([CL[1], CL[1]]))
_=plt.ylim(np.array(CL)+[-0.1*np.ptp(CL), 0.1*np.ptp(CL)]) #reset the limit

enter image description here

14
votes

Thanks to the comment of @tacaswell I was able to find the required documentation and come up with an example using Matplotlib 1.4.3. However, this example does not automatically scale the figure to the correct size.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

item = {}

item["label"] = 'box' # not required
item["mean"] = 5 # not required
item["med"] = 5.5
item["q1"] = 3.5
item["q3"] = 7.5
#item["cilo"] = 5.3 # not required
#item["cihi"] = 5.7 # not required
item["whislo"] = 2.0 # required
item["whishi"] = 8.0 # required
item["fliers"] = [] # required if showfliers=True

stats = [item]

fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 1)
axes.bxp(stats)
axes.set_title('Default')
y_axis = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
y_values = ["0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9"]
plt.yticks(y_axis, y_values)

Relevant links to the documentation:

5
votes

Referring to the answer of @MKroehnert and Boxplot drawer function at https://matplotlib.org/gallery/statistics/bxp.html, the following could be helpful:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

stats = [{
    "label": 'A',  # not required
    "mean":  5,  # not required
    "med": 5.5,
    "q1": 3.5,
    "q3": 7.5,
    # "cilo": 5.3 # not required
    # "cihi": 5.7 # not required
    "whislo": 2.0,  # required
    "whishi": 8.0,  # required
    "fliers": []  # required if showfliers=True
    }]

fs = 10  # fontsize

fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=1, figsize=(6, 6), sharey=True)
axes.bxp(stats)
axes.set_title('Boxplot for precalculated statistics', fontsize=fs)
plt.show()