Is it possible to draw a Min Max line plot ("Boxplot without box")?

Hi everybody,

I am asking a simple and apparently silly question but I cannot find an answer. Is it possible to plot a Max Min line plot, a sort of box plot without the box, in Matlab?

Thanks in advance.

MD

Answer 1

[arushi]

Hi Maja,

Here is an example for the query to plot a Max Min line plot, a sort of box plot without the box :

% Sample data: each column represents a category or set
data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
        2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
        1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5;
        0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5];

% Calculate the max and min values for each column
maxValues = max(data);
minValues = min(data);

% Number of categories
numCategories = size(data, 2);

% X-axis positions for the categories
x = 1:numCategories;

% Plot the max-min lines
figure;
hold on;
for i = 1:numCategories
    plot([x(i), x(i)], [minValues(i), maxValues(i)], 'k-', 'LineWidth', 2);
end

% Optionally, add markers for max and min
plot(x, maxValues, 'ro', 'MarkerFaceColor', 'r');
plot(x, minValues, 'bo', 'MarkerFaceColor', 'b');

% Customize the plot
xlabel('Category');
ylabel('Value');
title('Max-Min Line Plot');
grid on;
hold off;

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

[Shubham]

Hi Maja,

In MATLAB, you can create a "Max-Min" line plot, which resembles a box plot without the boxes, by plotting the maximum and minimum values as lines. Here's a step-by-step guide to achieve this:

1. Prepare Your Data: Assume you have a matrix data where each column represents a different group and each row represents an observation.
2. Calculate Statistics: Compute the minimum and maximum values for each group.
3. Plot the Max-Min Lines: Use the plot function to create the lines for the maximum and minimum values.

Here is an example code snippet to illustrate this:

% Sample data: each column is a different group
data = rand(10, 3); % 10 observations for 3 groups

% Calculate min and max for each group
minValues = min(data);
maxValues = max(data);

% Number of groups
numGroups = size(data, 2);

% Create a new figure
figure;

% Plot max and min lines
hold on;
for i = 1:numGroups
    % Plot line from min to max for each group
    plot([i, i], [minValues(i), maxValues(i)], 'k-', 'LineWidth', 2);
end

% Customize the plot
xlim([0.5, numGroups + 0.5]);
xticks(1:numGroups);
xlabel('Group');
ylabel('Value');
title('Max-Min Line Plot');
grid on;
hold off;

This approach will give you a simple Max-Min line plot for your data. You can further customize the appearance by adjusting line styles, colors, and markers as needed.

[Maja]

Thanks a lot!

Answer 3

[Aneela]

Hi Maja,

It is possible to draw a Min-Max plot, a box plot without the box.

I executed the code below in R2024a, which uses "errorbar" function to plot the Max-Min Line plot:

% Sample data
data = rand(100, 5); % 100 samples for 5 different groups

% Calculate minimum and maximum for each group
minValues = min(data);
maxValues = max(data);

% Calculate the mean for each group
meanValues = mean(data);

% Calculate the error 
lowerError = meanValues - minValues;
upperError = maxValues - meanValues;

% Define x positions for each group
x = 1:size(data, 2);

% Plot the Max-Min lines using error bars
figure;
errorbar(x, meanValues, lowerError, upperError, 'k', 'LineStyle', 'none', 'LineWidth', 2);

xlim([0.5, length(x) + 0.5]);
xticks(x);
xlabel('Group');
ylabel('Value');
title('Max-Min Line Plot using Error Bars');
grid on;

[Maja]

Thanks a lot. This is also a solution using errorbar function!