All Questions
Tagged with figures or data-visualization
3,115 questions
247
votes
5
answers
528k
views
How to interpret a QQ plot?
I am working with a small dataset (21 observations) and have the following normal QQ plot in R:
Seeing that the plot does not support normality, what could I infer about the underlying distribution? ...
- 21.1k
120
votes
4
answers
39k
views
Assessing approximate distribution of data based on a histogram
Suppose I want to see whether my data is exponential based on a histogram (i.e. skewed to the right).
Depending on how I group or bin the data, I can get wildly different histograms.
One set of ...
- 1,201
117
votes
11
answers
205k
views
"Best" series of colors to use for differentiating series in publication-quality plots
Has any study been done on what are the best set of colors to use for showing multiple series on the same plot? I've just been using the defaults in matplotlib, ...
- 1,333
104
votes
1
answer
92k
views
Interpreting plot.lm()
I had a question about interpreting the graphs generated by plot(lm) in R. I was wondering if you guys could tell me how to interpret the scale-location and leverage-residual plots? Any comments ...
- 1,041
89
votes
4
answers
35k
views
How to visualize what canonical correlation analysis does (in comparison to what principal component analysis does)?
Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is a technique related to principal component analysis (PCA). While it is easy to teach PCA or linear regression using a scatter plot (see a few thousand examples ...
- 993
89
votes
4
answers
198k
views
How to produce a pretty plot of the results of k-means cluster analysis?
I'm using R to do K-means clustering. I'm using 14 variables to run K-means
What is a pretty way to plot the results of K-means?
Are there any existing implementations?
Does having 14 variables ...
- 3,875
85
votes
13
answers
10k
views
Famous statistical wins and horror stories for teaching purposes
I am designing a one year program in data analysis with a local community college. The program aims to prepare students to handle basic tasks in data analysis, visualization and summarization, ...
73
votes
3
answers
175k
views
How to actually plot a sample tree from randomForest::getTree()? [closed]
Anyone got library or code suggestions on how to actually plot a couple of sample trees from:
getTree(rfobj, k, labelVar=TRUE)
(Yes I know you're not supposed ...
- 1,496
71
votes
3
answers
91k
views
When are Log scales appropriate?
I've read that using log scales when charting/graphing is appropriate in certain circumstances, like the y-axis in a time series chart. However, I've not been able to find a definitive explanation as ...
- 1,561
69
votes
9
answers
24k
views
How to visualize what ANOVA does?
What way (ways?) is there to visually explain what is ANOVA?
Any references, link(s) (R packages?) will be welcomed.
- 21.9k
63
votes
7
answers
70k
views
Graph for relationship between two ordinal variables
What is an appropriate graph to illustrate the relationship between two ordinal variables?
A few options I can think of:
Scatter plot with added random jitter to stop points hiding each other. ...
62
votes
12
answers
21k
views
Software needed to scrape data from graph [closed]
Anybody have any experience with software (preferably free, preferably open source) that will take an image of data plotted on cartesian coordinates (a standard, everyday plot) and extract the ...
60
votes
1
answer
22k
views
How to determine whether or not the y-axis of a graph should start at zero?
One common way to "lie with data" is to use a y-axis scale that makes it seem as if changes are more significant than they really are.
When I review scientific publications, or students' lab reports, ...
- 817
59
votes
2
answers
128k
views
How can I change the title of a legend in ggplot2? [closed]
I have a plot I'm making in ggplot2 to summarize data that are from a 2 x 4 x 3 celled dataset. I have been able to make panels for the 2-leveled variable using ...
- 19k
58
votes
4
answers
127k
views
How to visualize a fitted multiple regression model?
I am currently writing a paper with several multiple regression analyses. While visualizing univariate linear regression is easy via scatter plots, I was wondering whether there is any good way to ...
- 1,435
58
votes
3
answers
50k
views
How do I find peaks in a dataset?
If I have a data set that produces a graph such as the following, how would I algorithmically determine the x-values of the peaks shown (in this case three of them):
- 581
57
votes
13
answers
8k
views
Visually interesting statistics concepts that are easy to explain
I noticed on Math Stack Exchange a terrific thread which highlighted a number of very visually interesting math concepts. I would be curious to see graphics/gifs which anyone has that very clearly ...
57
votes
6
answers
82k
views
How to determine best cutoff point and its confidence interval using ROC curve in R?
I have the data of a test that could be used to distinguish normal and tumor cells. According to ROC curve it looks good for this purpose (area under curve is 0.9):
My questions are:
How to ...
- 4,139
57
votes
4
answers
75k
views
Would PCA work for boolean (binary) data types?
I want to reduce the dimensionality of higher order systems and capture most of the covariance on a preferably 2 dimensional or 1 dimensional field. I understand this can be done via principal ...
- 757
57
votes
9
answers
10k
views
Modern successor to Exploratory Data Analysis by Tukey?
I've been reading Tukey's book "Exploratory Data Analysis". Being written in 1977, the book emphasizes paper/pencil methods. Is there a more 'modern' successor which takes into account that we can ...
56
votes
2
answers
76k
views
PP-plots vs. QQ-plots
What is the difference between probability plots, PP-plots and QQ-plots when trying to analyse a fitted distribution to data?
- 691
54
votes
5
answers
317k
views
R - QQPlot: how to see whether data are normally distributed
I have plotted this after I did a Shapiro-Wilk normality test. The test showed that it is likely that the population is normally distributed. However, how to see this "behaviour" on this plot?
...
- 3,729
54
votes
3
answers
95k
views
Suppression effect in regression: definition and visual explanation/depiction
What is a suppressor variable in multiple regression and what might be the ways to display suppression effect visually (its mechanics or its evidence in results)? I'd like to invite everybody who has ...
- 58.8k
51
votes
9
answers
53k
views
Does anyone know any good open source software for visualizing data from database?
Recently I came across Tableau and tried to visualize the data from database and csv file. The user iterface enables the user to visualize time and spatial data and create plots in an instant. Such ...
50
votes
17
answers
11k
views
What is your favorite data visualization blog?
What is the best blog on data visualization?
I'm making this question a community wiki since it is highly subjective. Please limit each answer to one link.
Please note the following criteria for ...
49
votes
6
answers
121k
views
How do I avoid overlapping labels in an R plot? [closed]
I'm trying to label a pretty simple scatterplot in R. This is what I use:
plot(SI, TI)
text(SI, TI, Name, pos=4, cex=0.7)
The result is mediocre, as you can see (...
- 857
48
votes
8
answers
29k
views
How to do community detection in a weighted social network/graph?
I'm wondering if someone could suggest what are good starting points when it comes to performing community detection/graph partitioning/clustering on a graph that has weighted, undirected edges. The ...
- 1,149
47
votes
6
answers
5k
views
What is your favorite statistical graph?
This is a favorite of mine
This example is in a humorous vein (credit goes to a former professor of mine, Steven Gortmaker), but I am also interested in graphs that you feel beautifully capture and ...
47
votes
4
answers
107k
views
How to interpret mean of Silhouette plot?
Im trying to use silhouette plot to determine the number of cluster in my dataset. Given the dataset Train , i used the following matlab code
...
- 4,477
46
votes
10
answers
7k
views
How to plot trends properly
I am creating a graph to show trends in death rates (per 1000 ppl.) in different countries and the story that should come from the plot is that Germany (light blue line) is the only one whose trend is ...
- 3,209
45
votes
16
answers
7k
views
What best practices should I follow when preparing plots?
I usually make my own idiosyncratic choices when preparing plots. However, I wonder if there are any best practices for generating plots.
Note: Rob's comment to an answer to this question is very ...
43
votes
2
answers
76k
views
Interpretation of plot (glm.model)
Can anyone tell me how to interpret the 'residuals vs fitted', 'normal q-q', 'scale-location', and 'residuals vs leverage' plots? I am fitting a binomial GLM, saving it and then plotting it.
- 531
43
votes
3
answers
97k
views
What test can I use to compare slopes from two or more regression models?
I would like to test the difference in response of two variables to one predictor. Here is a minimal reproducible example.
...
- 3,901
41
votes
4
answers
19k
views
For plotting with R, should I learn ggplot2 or ggvis?
For plotting with R, should I learn ggplot2 or ggvis? I don't necessarily want to learn both if one of them is superior in any regard. Why R community keeps creating new packages with overlapping ...
- 737
41
votes
4
answers
38k
views
Why use colormap viridis over jet?
As announced in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU, Matplotlib changes the default colormap from jet to viridis.
However, I don't understand it pretty well. Maybe because I'm color blind?
...
- 1,285
39
votes
8
answers
35k
views
Graphical data overview (summary) function in R
I'm sure I've come across a function like this in an R package before, but after extensive Googling I can't seem to find it anywhere. The function I'm thinking of produced a graphical summary for a ...
- 2,177
38
votes
5
answers
9k
views
How to visualize/understand what a neural network is doing?
Neural networks are often treated as "black boxes" due to their complex structure. This is not ideal, as it is often beneficial to have an intuitive grasp of how a model is working internally. What ...
- 758
37
votes
7
answers
25k
views
Statistical methods to more efficiently plot data when millions of points are present?
I find R can take a long time to generate plots when millions of points are present - unsurprising given that points are plotted individually. Furthermore, such plots are often too cluttered and dense ...
- 473
37
votes
2
answers
90k
views
Interpretation of biplots in principal components analysis
I came across this nice tutorial: A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using R. Chapter 13. Principal Component Analysis: The
Olympic Heptathlon on how to do PCA in R language. I don't understand the ...
- 2,799
37
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Experimental evidence supporting Tufte-style visualizations?
Q: Does there exist experimental evidence supporting Tufte-style, minimalist, data-speak visualizations over the chart-junked visualizations of, say, Nigel Holmes?
I asked how to add chart-junk to R ...
- 2,157
37
votes
2
answers
13k
views
When is t-SNE misleading?
Quoting from one of the authors:
t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) is a (prize-winning) technique for dimensionality reduction that is particularly well suited for the ...
- 3,214
36
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Datasets constructed for a purpose similar to that of Anscombe's quartet
I've just come across Anscombe's quartet (four datasets that have almost indistinguishable descriptive statistics but look very different when plotted) and I am curious if there are other more or less ...
36
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Performing a statistical test after visualizing data - data dredging?
I'll propose this question by means of an example.
Suppose I have a data set, such as the boston housing price data set, in which I have continuous and categorical variables. Here, we have a "quality"...
- 1,420
35
votes
2
answers
15k
views
Is there a boxplot variant for Poisson distributed data?
I'd like to know if there is a boxplot variant adapted to Poisson distributed data (or possibly other distributions)?
With a Gaussian distribution, whiskers placed at L = Q1 - 1.5 IQR and U = Q3 + 1....
- 535
35
votes
3
answers
32k
views
What distribution does my data follow?
Let us say that I have 1000 components and I have been collecting data on how many times these log a failure and each time they logged a failure, I am also keeping track of how long it took my team to ...
- 4,552
35
votes
2
answers
53k
views
What does an Added Variable Plot (Partial Regression Plot) explain in a multiple regression?
I have a model of Movies dataset and I used the regression:
...
35
votes
2
answers
52k
views
How to plot decision boundary of a k-nearest neighbor classifier from Elements of Statistical Learning?
I want to generate the plot described in the book ElemStatLearn "The Elements of
Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction. Second Edition" by Trevor Hastie
& Robert Tibshirani&...
- 533
35
votes
3
answers
21k
views
Visualizing the intersections of many sets
Is there a visualization model that is good for showing the intersection overlap of many sets?
I am thinking something like Venn diagrams but that somehow might lend itself better to a larger number ...
- 767
34
votes
6
answers
26k
views
Line graph has too many lines, is there a better solution?
I'm trying to graph the number of actions by users (in this case, "likes") over time.
So I have "Number of actions" as my y-axis, my x-axis is time (weeks), and each line represents one user.
My ...
- 443
34
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Color and line thickness recommendations for line plots
Much has been written about color blind-friendly color choices for maps, polygons, and shaded regions in general (see for example http://colorbrewer2.org). I have not been able to find ...
- 98.5k