Box and Whisker Plot – QBeeQ

The Box & Whisker Plot (also called a box plot) is a standardized chart that visualizes the statistical distribution of a dataset through five key values:

the minimum

first quartile (Q1)

median

third quartile (Q3)

maximum

The "box" spans the interquartile range (IQR), the middle 50% of your data, while the "whiskers" extend to show the full spread, and individual points beyond the whiskers highlight outliers.

Box plots are especially valuable for comparing distributions across multiple categories or groups at a glance, making patterns like skew, spread, and anomalies immediately visible.

Installation and configuration

The Box and Whisker Plot plugin can be installed by an Admin, following the directions in Installing QBeeQ Plugins.

Operating system and version support:

Linux - Latest

Windows - Latest

Creating a Box & Whisker Plot

To create a new Box & Whisker Plot:

Choose QBeeQ Box & Whisker Plot from the widget dropdown list

Select data for Category, Value, Group by, and Color by panels

Configure settings

Select data

Use the data panel to select data to display on the chart:

Panel	Type	Description	Behavior
Category	Dimension	Defines the groups shown on the X-axis.	Each unique value becomes one box in the chart.
Value	Measure or Dimension	The numeric field whose distribution is plotted.	The plugin calculates Q1, median, Q3, min, and max from the raw values grouped by Category.
Group by	Dimension	A secondary grouping dimension.	Used to split values within each category before calculating statistics.
Color by	Measure	Controls the color of each box.	Supports solid color and conditional coloring rules.

⚠️

All four panels must be populated before the chart will render. If any panel is missing data, the chart displays an empty state.

Configure settings

Setting	Description	Behavior
Enable Scroll Zoom	Adds scrollbars for navigating a zoomed-in chart	When on, horizontal and vertical scrollbars appear. Zoom in by dragging the cursor on the chart, then use scrollbars to pan.
X-axis	Toggles the X axis visibility	When enabled, Grid Line and Axis Title sub-options become available.
X-axis › Grid Line	Show or hide vertical grid lines	ℹ️ Available when X-axis is enabled
X-axis › Axis Title	Show or hide the X axis title	Title text is taken from the Category field name. ℹ️ Available when X-axis is enabled
Y-axis	Toggles the Y axis visibility	When enabled, Grid Line, Axis Title, Min, and Max sub-options become available.
Y-axis › Grid Line	Show or hide horizontal grid lines	ℹ️ Available when Y-axis is enabled
Y-axis › Axis Title	Show or hide the Y axis title	Title text is taken from the Value field name. ℹ️ Available when Y-axis is enabled
Y-axis › Min	Sets a fixed minimum value for the Y axis	Leave empty to use the data minimum. ℹ️ Available when Y-axis is enabled
Y-axis › Max	Sets a fixed maximum value for the Y axis	Leave empty to use the data maximum. ℹ️ Available when Y-axis is enabled
X-axis Label	Toggles X axis category label visibility	When enabled, Rotation and Width sub-options become available.
X-axis Label › Rotation	Controls the orientation of category labels	Horizontal is flat (0°). Diagonal is angled (−45°). Vertical is upright (−90°). ℹ️ Available when X-axis labels are enabled
X-axis Label › Width	Maximum label width in pixels before the text is truncated	Default: 120 px ℹ️ Available when X-axis labels are enabled
Y-axis Label	Toggles Y axis value label visibility	Labels are formatted using the number mask set on the Value panel item.
Sort By Measure	Sorts boxes by a computed statistical value	Applies to all categories. Use together with Sort By Order to control direction. None leaves boxes in their original data order.
Sort By Order	Controls the sort direction	Applied when Sort By Measure is not None.
Horizontal Zoom	Sets the visible range of the X axis	Drag both slider handles to focus on a subset of categories. Resets when the chart is reloaded.
Vertical Zoom	Sets the visible range of the Y axis	Drag both slider handles to zoom into a specific value range.
Box Width	Controls the width of each box relative to the available slot	A value of 1 fills the full slot width; 0.5 (default) leaves spacing between boxes.

Using the Box and Whisker Plot

Zoom in/out

Viewers can zoom in and out to explore boxes in more detail. This can be done by clicking and dragging the chart to zoom into a selected area

If the Designer has enabled scroll zoom, horizontal and vertical scrollbars appear, allowing navigation after zooming in

When the chart has zoom applied, the Viewer can click the purple zoom-out button to reset the view.

Tooltips

Viewers can hover over any box to see a tooltip displaying six statistical values for that category.

Value	Description
Low	The actual minimum value in the group
Min	25th percentile, the bottom edge of the box
Median	50th percentile, the horizontal line inside the box
Max	75th percentile. the top edge of the box
High	The actual maximum value in the group
Range	High − Low (the full spread of the data)