Box plot visualization (SmartViz)

Important

This feature is in beta and subject to change. Reach out to support with any issues.

The Box plot visualization summarizes the distribution of a measure across categories, showing the median, the interquartile range, and the extremes for each. Use it when an average hides too much, such as latency percentiles across services.

Note

The box plot expects the statistics to already exist as columns in your data. Use Shaping or SQL Analytics to calculate the low, quartile, median, and high values before mapping them here.

When to use a box plot

Reach for a box plot when the spread of a measure matters more than its average. Median, quartiles, and extremes appear together, so a service whose typical latency is fine but whose worst case is not will stand out immediately.

If you have raw values rather than percentiles, use a Histogram, which buckets them for you.

Try it out

Change the settings below and see how the chart updates. Select a dataset from the dropdown to see different use cases.

Interactive example
Showing

Response time by service, four boxes of comparable spread. Payments runs both slower and less consistently, and the shape of the box says so on its own.

0200400600API GatewayAuth ServicePaymentsSearch
Box plot: Payments has the widest spread: 150–520 ms

Box plot settings

Data mapping

Setting
Description
X Axis
Select the column naming the category each box belongs to.
Low
Required. Select the numeric column holding the lower whisker value.
Q1
Required. Select the numeric column holding the first quartile.
Median
Required. Select the numeric column holding the median.
Q3
Required. Select the numeric column holding the third quartile.
High
Required. Select the numeric column holding the upper whisker value.

X axis

Setting
Description
Show Labels
Enable to show the tick labels along the x-axis.
Label Rotation (°)
Enter the rotation for x-axis labels, from -90 to 90 degrees. Useful when labels overlap.
Tick Density
Select how many tick labels are shown. Choose from: Sparse, Auto, or Dense.
Show Axis Title
Enable to show the axis title text.
Axis Title
Enter a custom title for the x-axis.
Show Grid Lines
Enable to draw vertical grid lines at each x-axis division.

Y axis

Setting
Description
Scale
Select the axis scale. Choose from: Linear or Log.
Range
Select how the axis range is set. Choose from: Fit to data, which scales to the values plotted, or 0–100%, which fixes the range regardless of the data.
Min Value
Enter a value to fix the bottom of the axis. Leave empty to fit the axis to the data.
Max Value
Enter a value to fix the top of the axis. Leave empty to fit the axis to the data.
Decimal Places
Enter the number of decimal places shown on axis labels, from 0 to 6.
Inverse Axis
Enable to flip the axis so values increase downwards.
Show Labels
Enable to show the tick labels along the y-axis.
Label Rotation (°)
Enter the rotation for y-axis labels, from -90 to 90 degrees.
Tick Density
Select how many tick labels are shown. Choose from: Sparse, Auto, or Dense.
Show Axis Title
Enable to show the axis title text.
Axis Title
Enter a custom title for the y-axis.
Show Grid Lines
Enable to draw horizontal grid lines at each y-axis division.
Unit Column
Enter the name of the column whose first-row value is appended as a suffix to the y-axis tick labels, for example ms, %, or GB. Available on line, bar, and scatter charts.

Legend & labels

Setting
Description
Axis Label Font Size (px)
Enter the font size for both the x- and y-axis tick labels, from 6 to 72.
Show Data Labels
Enable to print values against each box.
Label Color
Choose the text color for data labels.
Label Font Size (px)
Enter the font size for data labels, from 6 to 72.
Label Format
Enter an Expression to format the data label content. The date, number, and percent helpers are available.

Colors

Add up to 20 colors to set the palette, in order. The palette repeats when there are more items than colors. Leave the palette empty to use the SquaredUp default colors.

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