[R] mild and extreme outliers in boxplot

[Rolf Turner]

On 20/08/2009, at 8:49 AM, Bert Gunter wrote:

> Rolf:
>
> Not sure what "reasonably thorough" means but:
>
>  ? boxplot says:
>
> ...
> pars    a list of (potentially many) more graphical parameters,  
> e.g., boxwex
> or outpch; these are passed to bxp (if plot is true); for details, see
> there.
>
>
> Well, that seems pretty clear to me, so I went to ?bxp to find in  
> the pars
> listing:
>
> outlty, outlwd, outpch, outcex, outcol, outbg:
> outlier line type, line width, point character, point size  
> expansion, color,
> and background color. The default outlty= "blank" suppresses the  
> lines and
> outpch=NA suppresses points.
>
>
> It seems to me that this (and other omitted excerpts + examples) is  
> at least
> a reasonable answer to the query (allowing the reader to at least  
> infer that
> bxp does not distinguish degrees of outlyingness), so I don't  
> understand
> your criticism. Feel free to respond privately if you prefer.

I'm flabbergasted!  The OP asked how to plot mild and extreme outliers
with distinct plotting symbols.  The reply said to see the help for
boxplot and bxp.

Surely ***any reasonable person*** would infer from this that these help
files contain the answer to the question!!!  I.e. that the help files  
tell one
how to plot mild and extreme outliers with distinct plotting symbols!!!

They ***don't***.  In fact it can't be done!

Instead of saying ``see the help files'' --- which leaves the  
enquirer struggling
to read through a fairly large mass of somewhat obscure material,  
wondering just
where in hell the information, which the reply indicates is existent,  
can possibly
be located --- why not just say ``It can't be done.  The boxplot  
function in R
does not distinguish between mild and extreme outliers''?

If the poster asks a reasonable question, answer it, rather than  
engaging in
bloody-minded obscurantism.

		cheers,

			Rolf Turner

> -- Bert
>
> Bert Gunter
> Genentech Nonclinical Biostatisics
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r- 
> project.org] On
> Behalf Of Rolf Turner
> Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:27 PM
> To: ottorino-luca.pantani at unifi.it
> Cc: Rnewbie; ERRE
> Subject: Re: [R] mild and extreme outliers in boxplot
>
>
> On 20/08/2009, at 3:13 AM, Ottorino-Luca Pantani wrote:
>
>> Rnewbie ha scritto:
>>> dear all,
>>>
>>> could somebody tell me how I can plot mild outliers as a circle(°)
>>> and
>>> extreme outliers as an asterisk(*) in a box-whisker plot?
>>>
>>> Thanks very much in advance
>>>
>> ?boxplot
>>
>> or
>>
>> help(bxp)
>
> This is the sort of response that gives R-help a bad name.
>
> I had a reasonably thorough look at these help files and saw
> ***nothing***
> that would answer the OP's question.  The information may be there
> --- I'm
> not sure about this --- but it is far from obvious.  Explicit  
> reference
> to the appropriate lines of the help file(s) would be useful.
>
> 	cheers,
>
> 		Rolf Turner
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