Customizing a Range Plot Data Display

In this article, the options for creating and customizing a range plot data display are explained. For an overview of creating and visualizing and analyzing data in any type of data display in FieldScope, see the Customizing Data Displays article.

A range plot is a graph with an x-axis and y-axis that allows users to compare numerical values of different categorical variables. Bars extend across the x-axis to represent the range of a numeric variable (e.g., air temperature), as that range corresponds to a categorical variable (e.g., month of year) on the y-axis. This style of graph is also called a “box and whisker” plot and helps users understand the distribution of numeric data within a category.

When creating a range plot data display, you will see options to (1) select a filter set and (2) configure data. For the first option, you may use the preconfigured “Recent observations” filter set that shows the 25 most recent observations in a project, or you may select a filter set you have created.

Option 1

For the second option, select the numeric value you would like to represent on the x-axis within each bar of the graph and the categorical variable that will populate the y-axis. Optionally, you can choose to display a small, vertical line on each bar to represent the mean value of the numeric data within that category or the median value within the category.

Option 2

For example, if you select Longitude as the configuration for the x-axis and then Surface Water Appearance for the y-axis, your data display will update to display the data.

The option to display whiskers transforms the bars into a “box and whisker” style plot. If you roll your cursor over each bar, information about the numeric data included in each category is displayed. For example, in the image below, air temperature data for the month of February are displayed in the white box. The minimum air temperature recorded in May was 11°C, the maximum was 29°C, the mean was 20°C, and the median was 19°C. There were 158 total air temperature values recorded in that month.

The line to the left of the blue bar represents the lower quartile of values. And the line to the right of the blue bar represents the upper quartile. The blue bar itself represents 50% of values that fall into the middle of the data set. 17°C is the numeric value at the 25th percentile (where the left line meets the blue bar) and 22°C is the 75th percentile (where the blue bar meets the right line).

Before adding the range plot to your visualization, you can edit the name of your range plot by clicking on the edit pencil icon in the upper left corner of the screen.

 Once you have configured your Range Plot data display, click Save.

You will be returned to the main screen of the visualization where all of the created data displays will appear together on the right-hand side of your browser screen.

• Learn more about customizing different data displays here:

  • Overview
  • Histogram/Bar Chart
  • Numeric Summary
  • Time Series 
  • Scatter Plot