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whuber ♦
whuber ♦
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Context:

Over the while I've acquired a set of heuristics on how to effectively plot the association between two numeric variables. I imagine most people who work with data would have a similar set of rules.

Examples of such rules might be:

  • If one of the variables is positively skewed, consider plotting that axis on a log scale.
  • If there are a lot of data points (e.g., n > 1000), adopt a different strategy such as using some form of partial transparency, or sampling the data;
  • If one of the variables takes on a limited number of discrete categories, consider using a jitter or a sunflower plot;
  • If there are three or more variables, consider using a scatterplot matrix;
  • Fitting some form of trend line is often useful;
  • Adjust the size of the plotting character to the sample size (for bigger n, use a smaller plotting character);
  • and so on.

Question:

I'd like to be able to refer students to a web page or site that explains these and other tricks for effectively plotting associations between two numeric variables, perhaps with examples.

  • Are there any good pages or sites on the internet that do a good job of this?

Context:

Over the while I've acquired a set of heuristics on how to effectively plot the association between two numeric variables. I imagine most people who work with data would have a similar set of rules.

Examples of such rules might be:

  • If one of the variables is positively skewed, consider plotting that axis on a log scale.
  • If there are a lot of data points (e.g., n > 1000), adopt a different strategy such as using some form of partial transparency, or sampling the data;
  • If one of the variables takes on a limited number of discrete categories, consider using a jitter or a sunflower plot;
  • If there are three or more variables, consider using a scatterplot matrix;
  • Fitting some form of trend line is often useful;
  • Adjust the size of the plotting character to the sample size (for bigger n, use a smaller plotting character);
  • and so on.

Question:

I'd like to be able to refer students to a web page or site that explains these and other tricks for effectively plotting associations between two numeric variables, perhaps with examples.

  • Are there any good pages or sites on the internet that do a good job of this?

Context:

Over the while I've acquired a set of heuristics on how to effectively plot the association between two numeric variables. I imagine most people who work with data would have a similar set of rules.

Examples of such rules might be:

  • If one of the variables is positively skewed, consider plotting that axis on a log scale.
  • If there are a lot of data points (e.g., n > 1000), adopt a different strategy such as using some form of partial transparency, or sampling the data;
  • If one of the variables takes on a limited number of discrete categories, consider using a jitter or a sunflower plot;
  • If there are three or more variables, consider using a scatterplot matrix;
  • Fitting some form of trend line is often useful;
  • Adjust the size of the plotting character to the sample size (for bigger n, use a smaller plotting character);
  • and so on.

Question:

I'd like to be able to refer students to a web page or site that explains these and other tricks for effectively plotting associations between two numeric variables, perhaps with examples.

  • Are there any pages or sites on the internet that do a good job of this?
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Jeromy Anglim
Jeromy Anglim
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Good online resource with tips on graphing association between two numeric variables under various conditions

Context:

Over the while I've acquired a set of heuristics on how to effectively plot the association between two numeric variables. I imagine most people who work with data would have a similar set of rules.

Examples of such rules might be:

  • If one of the variables is positively skewed, consider plotting that axis on a log scale.
  • If there are a lot of data points (e.g., n > 1000), adopt a different strategy such as using some form of partial transparency, or sampling the data;
  • If one of the variables takes on a limited number of discrete categories, consider using a jitter or a sunflower plot;
  • If there are three or more variables, consider using a scatterplot matrix;
  • Fitting some form of trend line is often useful;
  • Adjust the size of the plotting character to the sample size (for bigger n, use a smaller plotting character);
  • and so on.

Question:

I'd like to be able to refer students to a web page or site that explains these and other tricks for effectively plotting associations between two numeric variables, perhaps with examples.

  • Are there any good pages or sites on the internet that do a good job of this?