[R] Odp: basic boxplot questions

[Petr PIKAL]

Hi

r-help-bounces at r-project.org napsal dne 16.01.2009 15:24:26:

> dear R experts:
> 
> I am playing with boxplots for the first time.  most of it is
> intuitive, although there was less info on the web than I had hoped.
> 
> alas, for some odd reason, my R boxplots have some fat black dots, not
> just the hollow outlier plots.  Is there a description of when R draws
> hollow vs. fat dots somewhere?

Standard use of boxplot does not draw filled dots, just hollow points. 
Didnt you by chance use pch=19. 


> 
> [and what is the parameter to change just the size of these dots?]

Details on bxp help page

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. 

> 
> Also, let me show my fundamental ignorance:  I am a little surprised
> that the average box boxplot would not show the mean and sdv, too, at
> least optionally.  Is there a common way to accomplish this (e.g., in
> a different color), or do I just construct it myself with standard R
> graphics line() commands?

I always expect boxplot to show median and IQR, however I have seen such 
twisted boxplots elsewhere. Eg if you looked in CRAN search facility you 
would easily find

R-help archive January 2004: Re: [R] adding mean to boxplot

Regards
Petr


> 
> advice appreciated.
> 
> regards,
> 
> /iaw
> 
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