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BoxPlot

A BoxPlot is a graphical mark used to represent the distribution of a collection of data. Vizagrams already implements the BoxPlot mark, yet, we use this example to show how one could recreate it without having to relying on the implementation provided.

1. Creating the BoxPlot Mark

The first step is to create the graphical mark.

struct BoxPlot <: Mark
    data
    box_width::Real
end
BoxPlot(;data=[-3,-1,0,1,4],box_width=1) = BoxPlot(data,box_width)

function Vizagrams.ζ(boxplot::BoxPlot)
    (;data, box_width) = boxplot

    # Computing Statistics
    m = median(data)
    q1=quantile(data,0.25)
    q3=quantile(data,0.75)
    iqr = q3 - q1
    li = max(q1 - 1.5*iqr,minimum(data))
    ls = min(q3 + 1.5*iqr,maximum(data))


    # Drawing box elements
    boxbottom = T(0,m)T(0,-(m-q1)/2)Rectangle(h=m-q1,w=box_width)
    boxtop = T(0,m)T(0,(q3-m)/2)Rectangle(h=q3-m,w=box_width)
    linetop    = S(:strokeWidth=>1)*Line([[0,q3],[0,ls]])
    linebottom = S(:strokeWidth=>1)*Line([[0,q1],[0,li]])
    linem = S(:strokeWidth=>2,:stroke=>:white)*Line([[-box_width/2,m],[box_width/2,m]])
    return boxtop + boxbottom + linem + linetop + linebottom
end

By creating the struct and defining the ζ method, we have specifyied the bare minimum for the creation of a graphical mark.

2. Plot Specification using BoxPlot

Next, let us actually plot using the BoxPlot mark.

using Vizagrams
using DataFrames
using PalmerPenguins
df = DataFrame(PalmerPenguins.load())
df = dropmissing(df);

plt = plot(df,x=:species,color=:species,y=:body_mass_g,
    graphic=∑(i=:x) do rows
        S(:fill=>rows.color[1])T(rows.x[1],0)BoxPlot(data=rows.y,box_width=40)
    end
)
draw(plt)
Example block output

We can reduce the graphic specification by passing a function that defines the graphic expression for the given mark:

function GraphicExpression(box::BoxPlot)
    return ∑(; i=:x) do rows
        S(:fill => rows.color[1])T(rows.x[1], 0)BoxPlot(; data=rows.y, box_width=40)
    end
end

Once this is done, we can do the previous boxplot by simply writing:

plt = plot(df,x=:species,color=:species,y=:body_mass_g,
    graphic=BoxPlot()
)
draw(plt)
Example block output

3. Altering Axis

At last, note that we can change the axis of our boxplot by altering the graphic expression:

plt = plot(df,y=:species,color=:species,x=:body_mass_g,
    graphic=∑(i=:y) do rows
        S(:fill=>rows.color[1])T(0,rows.y[1])R(-π/2)BoxPlot(data=rows.x,box_width=40)
    end
)

draw(plt)
Example block output