Software for producing graphs

davidsonsl

tomstickland wrote:

For example, my understanding of box plots is that you want a series of rectangular boxes that are each divided into smaller units. In Excel you can set a series of x and y coordinates into the cells and then use that as a graph series. A cell with no numbers in it in a series will result in the line being broken, so you can use one series to draw multiple shapes on the graph.

For example
x, y
0,0
0,1
1,1
1,0
0,0
-,-
3,0
3,1
4,1
4,0
3,0

will draw two boxes on the graph. If you expand this using some forumlas in the cells then you can automate most of it.

???? great but me speaky no computer!!! what i am looking for is 2 boxes 1 shows results of group 1 & the other group 2. both boxes must display range of results from 20 participants, the median for that group, the hinges of each group (top and bottom 25% scores) - this is called either a box plot or a box an whisker plot? think you can help??

davidsonsl

grumpyoldgit wrote:

SPSS is a professional statistical package
Statistical Package for Social Sciences
Unless you want to spend the rest of your life figuring it out I would not bother with that route - it is excellent software, expensive and way too advanced for most d2d uses.

Advanced it may be but I've got an idiots guide of how to produce the box plt I am after! unfortunately my budget si limited though so I will have to look elsewhere! :mad: :rudolf:

davidsonsl

grumpyoldgit wrote:

Have a look on the web for free user friendly software - try here:
http://www.freebyte.com/office/#pims

GoG

Sorry link not working.

tomstickland

???? great but me speaky no computer!!! what i am looking for is 2 boxes 1 shows results of group 1 & the other group 2. both boxes must display range of results from 20 participants, the median for that group, the hinges of each group (top and bottom 25% scores) - this is called either a box plot or a box an whisker plot? think you can help??

Box plots, yes, I know about them, just a way of expressing the distribution of a data set in a quick-to-read manner.

Yes, I can make a mock up Excel file for you and send it to you.

This is my plan:
put in the data set for each group, one entry per row, group 1 in col 1 and group 2 in col2. Then calculate the min, max, median and 25th quartile points all using the Excel functions such as min, max, stdev etc.

Then I'll build a construction table that will generate the x,y coordinates for the blocks and intermediate values.

This table will have data values like:

to do outer box
0,min
0,max
1,max
1,min
0,min

to do the median line
0, median
1,median

etc.

Read the Excel help files and play around with it to see how it works.

F1F1

davidsonsl wrote:

Help!!???!! can anyone give me some advice, I am doing a degree course online ...

Sorry, but anyone doing a degree course online should have the gumption to google!

Googling 'box plot' brings up loads of entries, including -

http://www.mis.coventry.ac.uk/~nhunt/boxplot.htm - Box Plots in Excel.

grumpyoldgit_2

F1F1 wrote:

Sorry, but anyone doing a degree course online should have the gumption to google!

Googling 'box plot' brings up loads of entries, including -

http://www.mis.coventry.ac.uk/~nhunt/boxplot.htm - Box Plots in Excel.

I agree - have given up spoonfeeding this one

davidsonsl

grumpyoldgit wrote:

I agree - have given up spoonfeeding this one

Well how rude! I am self taught on the internet and am very green, I also use yahoo not google and had not managed to track down anything that was of use, if you feel i'm putting you out by helping me then why bother????? not that you have actually offered any useful advice.

davidsonsl

F1F1 wrote:

Sorry, but anyone doing a degree course online should have the gumption to google!

Googling 'box plot' brings up loads of entries, including -

http://www.mis.coventry.ac.uk/~nhunt/boxplot.htm - Box Plots in Excel.

Thanks for that, looks just like what I was looking for, may have to switch from yahoo to google in future!

grumpyoldgit_2

davidsonsl wrote:

Well how rude! I am self taught on the internet and am very green, I also use yahoo not google and had not managed to track down anything that was of use, if you feel i'm putting you out by helping me then why bother????? not that you have actually offered any useful advice.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:eek: :whistle:

eamon

Better and simpler idea.
Search web for "graph paper", brings up loads of hits. Most are free to download. If you aren't doing complicated graphs these should be fine.

yours

Eamon