Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel: Updated for Office 2007

Chapter 4 Describing Your Data 167

3 Click The interquartile from the list of subject titles.

The box part of the boxplot displays the interquartile range of the

distribution, ranging from the fi rst quartile to the third. The median

is shown as a horizontal line within the box. Note that the median

need not be in the center of the box. The box tells you where the

central 50% of the data is located. By observing the placement of

the median within the box, you can also get an indication of how

those values are clustered within that central 50%. A median line

close to the fi rst quartile indicates that a lot of the values are clus-

tered in the lower range of the distribution.

4 Click The fences from the list of subject titles.

The inner and outer fences of the boxplot set the boundaries between

standard observations, moderate outliers, and extreme outliers. Note

that the formula for the fences matches the formula for moderate

and extreme outliers discussed in the previous section.

Figure 4-26
The “box”
from the
boxplot