Box plot properties

You open the properties panel for a visualization by clicking Edit sheet in the toolbar and clicking the visualization that you want to edit.

If the properties panel is hidden, click  Show properties in the lower right-hand corner.

Data

Click Add to add a dimension or a measure.

Dimensions

On the Data tab, under Dimensions, click Add to open a list of available Dimensions and Fields. Select the dimension or field that you want to use.

You can also click to create a dimension in the expression editor. Another way to create a dimension is to type the expression directly in the text box. Expressions added in this way must begin with an equals sign (=). Here is an example with a calculated dimension:

=If (Week < 14, Week, 'Sales')

If Add is dimmed, you cannot add more dimensions.

You can edit a dimension that is linked to a master item by updating the master item, or by unlinking the dimension from the master item and editing only this instance.

It is not possible to put limitations on the inner dimension of a box plot.

• <Dimension name>: Click the dimension name to open the dimension settings.

  If you want to delete the dimension, right-click the dimension and select in the dialog. Alternatively, click the dimension and click .

  • Dimension: Only displayed for master items. To edit only this instance of the dimension, click to unlink the dimension from the master item.
  • Field: If you have added a field from Fields in the assets panel, the field name is automatically displayed. Click to open the expression editor.
  • Label: Enter a label for the dimension. If you have added a field from Fields in the assets panel, the field name is automatically displayed.
  • Include null values: When selected, the measure values of all null dimensions are summarized and presented as one dimension item in a visualization. All null values are displayed as gaps or dashes (-).

  • Master item: Create a master dimension based on the dimension expression by clicking Add new. If the dimension is already linked to a master item, click Edit to update the master item. All instances of the linked dimension will be updated.

    Reusing dimensions with master dimensions

• Add alternative: Alternative dimensions and measures are dimensions and measures that are added to a visualization, but are not displayed until a user chooses to switch which dimensions and measures are being displayed during visual exploration.

You can drag the dimensions to set the order in which they are displayed in the visualization. Use the drag bars () to rearrange the order.

You can drag a field from Measures to Dimensions to change how it is used. Moving a measure to Dimensions removes its aggregation. You cannot drag a master measure to Dimensions. You can only drag a measure to Dimensions if its expression is simple. For more information on expressions, see Using expressions in visualizations.

Measures

On the Data tab, under Measures, click Add to open a list of available measures. Select the measure that you want to add to the visualization. If you select a field, you are automatically presented with some common aggregation functions that you can choose between for the measure.

If no measure is available, you need to create one. You can enter the expression directly in the text box, or click to create a measure in the expression editor.

You can edit a measure that is linked to a master item by updating the master item, or by unlinking the measure from the master item and editing only this instance.

If Add is dimmed, you cannot add more measures.

• <Measure name>: Click the measure to open the measure settings.

  If you want to delete the measure, right-click the measure and select in the dialog. Alternatively, click the measure and click .

  • Expression: Click to open the expression editor.The existing expression is displayed by default.

  • Label: Enter a label for the measure. Measures not saved in Master items are by default displayed with the expression as label.
  • Measure: Only displayed for master items. To edit only this instance of the measure, click to unlink the measure from the master item.
  • Number formatting: Different options for formatting the measure values. If you want to change the number format at app level, and not just for a single measure, it is better to do that in the regional settings, that is, in the SET statements at the beginning of the script in the data load editor.

  The following number formats are available:

  • Auto: Qlik Sense automatically sets a number formatting based on the source data.

    To represent numeric abbreviations, the international SI units are used, such as k (thousand), M (million), and G (billion).

  • Number: By default, the formatting is set to Simple, and you can select the formatting from the options in the drop-down list. Click the button to change to Custom formatting, and use the Format pattern box to change the format pattern.

    Examples:  

    • # ##0 describes the number as an integer with a thousands separator. In this example " " is used as a thousands separator.
    • ###0 describes the number as an integer without a thousands separator.
    • 0000 describes the number as an integer with at least four digits. For example, the number 123 will be shown as 0123.
    • 0.000 describes the number with three decimals. In this example "." is used as a decimal separator.

    If you add the percent sign (%) to the format pattern, the measure values are automatically multiplied by 100.

  • Money: By default, the format pattern used for money is the same as set up in the operating system. Use the Format pattern box to change the format pattern.
  • Date: By default, the formatting is set to Simple, and you can select the formatting from the options in the drop-down list. Click the button to change to Custom formatting, and use the Format pattern box to change the format pattern.
  • Duration: By default, the format pattern used for duration is the same as set up in the operating system. Duration can be formatted as days, or as a combination of days, hours, minutes, seconds and fractions of seconds. Use the Format pattern box to change the format pattern.

  • Custom: By default, the format pattern used for custom is the same as set up in the operating system. Use the Format pattern boxes to change the format pattern.

    • Decimal separator: Set the decimal separator.
    • Thousands separator: Set the thousands separator.
    • Format pattern: Set the number format pattern.
    • Reset pattern: Click to reset to default pattern.

  • Measure expression: The format pattern is determined by the measure expression. Use this option to display custom number formatting for a measure in a visualization.

    Limitations:

    Only works with visualizations that accept measures.

    Cannot be used with a box plot.

    Does not affect the number formatting of the axis.

  • Master item: Create a master measure based on the measure expression by clicking Add new. If the measure is already linked to a master item, you can update the master item by clicking Edit. All instances of the linked dimension will be updated. .

    Reusing measures with master measures

• Add alternative: Alternative dimensions and measures are dimensions and measures that are added to a visualization, but are not displayed until a user chooses to switch which dimensions and measures are being displayed during visual exploration.

You can drag the measures to set the order in which they are displayed in the visualization. Use the drag bars () to rearrange the order.

You can drag a field from Dimensions to Measures to change how it is used. Moving a dimension to Measures assigns it an aggregation. You cannot drag a master dimension to Measures.

Box plot elements

• <Use presets>: If you set this to On you can select one of the available presets that define the elements of the box plot: Standard (Tukey), Percentile-based or Standard deviation.

  If you set to Off you need to define all elements using custom expressions.

• Standard (Tukey): This preset is based on the original box plot definition by J. Tukey. The center line represents the median (second quartile), and the box start and end points represent the first and third quartiles.

  You can set the length of the whiskers with Whisker length: 1 inter-quartile range , 1.5 inter-quartile range or 2 inter-quartile ranges.

  1 inter-quartile range represents the length of the box, that is, the difference between the first and third quartiles.

• Percentile-based: This preset is also defined with the box start and end points representing the first and third quartiles, and the center line representing the median, but the whisker length is adjusted by setting a percentile based Whisker position: Min/max.

  This setting sets the whisker start and end points to the minimum and maximum values: 1st/99th percentile, 5th/95th percentile or 10th/90th percentile.

• Standard deviation: This preset is based on standard deviations, with the center line representing the average value, and the box start and end points representing one standard deviation variance. You can set the whisker length to a multiple of standard deviations: One standard deviation, Two standard deviations or Three standard deviations.

• Include outliers: You can select to display outlier values, that is, values on either side of the whiskers.

• Custom boxplot element settings: If you set Use presets to Off you can define all elements using a custom expression and label. Expressions are prefilled with the expressions used to define the elements in the most recently used preset.

  Center line: Name and Expression

  Box edges: Box start name, Box start expression, Box end name or Box end expression

  Whiskers:First whisker name, First whisker expression , Last whisker name or Last whisker expression

Sorting

If you set Sorting to Custom, you can sort the box plot by a custom expression, or by the second dimension of the chart in numerical or alphabetical order. The sorting is either Ascending or Descending.

• Sort by expression: Select which element to sort by (First whisker, Box start, Center line, Box end or Last whisker).
• Sort numerically: Enable this to sort numerically by the second dimension of the chart. If you change the second dimension, the chart will be sorted by the new dimension.
• Sort alphabetically: Enable this to sort alphabetically by the second dimension of the chart. If you change the second dimension, the chart will be sorted by the new dimension.

You can also customize the sort expression. Do the following:

1. Click to unlink the sort expression.
2. Edit the sort expression.

You can sort by load order by switching to Custom and leaving all sorting options unselected.

If you have set a custom order for a field, that custom order will override any selected internal sort order in Sorting. See Customizing the order of dimension values.

Add-ons

• Data handling:

  Calculation condition: Specify an expression in this text field to set a condition that needs to be fulfilled (true) for the object to be displayed. The value may be entered as a calculated formula. For example: count(distinct Team)<3. If the condition is not fulfilled, the message or expression entered in Displayed message is displayed.

  A calculation condition is useful when a chart or table is slow to respond due to a large amount of data. You can use the calculation condition to hide an object until the user has filtered the data to a more manageable level by applying selections. Use the Displayed message property to guide the user to filter the data.

• Reference lines:

  • Add reference line: Click to add a new reference line.
  • Show: When selected, the reference line is displayed.
  • Label: Enter a label for the reference line.
  • Color: In the color picker, select the color of the reference line and the label.
  • Reference line expression: Enter a value or an expression for the reference line. Click to open the expression editor.
  • : Click to remove the reference line.

Appearance

General

• Show titles: Select to enable or disable titles, subtitles, and footnotes in the chart.

  Enter Title, Subtitle, and Footnote. By default, the string is interpreted as a text string. However, you can also use the text field for an expression, or a combination of text and expression. An equals sign (=), at the beginning of a string shows that it contains an expression.

  Click if you want to create an expression by using the expression editor.

  Information noteTitles are displayed on a single line. If you inject line breaks they will be ignored.

  Example:  

  Assume that the following string is used, including quotation marks: 'Sales: ' & Sum(Sales).

  By default, the string is interpreted as a text string and is displayed as presented in the example. But if you begin the string with an equals sign: (='Sales: ' & Sum(Sales)), the string is interpreted as an expression instead. The output is then Sales: <value of expression>, where <value of expression> is the calculated value.

• Disable hover menu: Select to disable the hover menu in the visualization.

• Show details: Set to Show if you want to allow users to be able to choose to view details, such as descriptions, measures, and dimensions.
• Show disclaimer: Set to Show if you want to see visualization disclaimers that appear at the bottom of the chart, such as limited data or the chart has negative values.

Alternate states

State: Set the state to apply to the visualization. You can select:

• Any alternate state defined in Master items.
• <inherited>, in which case the state defined for the sheet is used.
• <default state>, which represents the state where no alternate state is applied.

For more information about alternate states, see Using alternate states for comparative analysis.

Presentation

You can set the orientation to be Vertical or Horizontal.

• Show whisker ticks: Enable this to display vertical lines at the end of each whisker.
• Gridline spacing: Set this to Custom if you want to customize the horizontal gridlines. You can choose between: No lines, Medium, and Narrow.

Colors

• Colors: You only need to select Custom if you want to change the settings. The Auto settings are based on the visualization used and the number of dimensions and measures, that is, the settings are not fixed, but are dependent on the data input.

  • Single color: A single color (by default blue) is used for all items in the chart. In visualizations that do not benefit from multiple colors (bar charts with one dimension and scatter plots), single color is the default setting. Use the color picker to change the dimension color.
  • By expression : You can use coloring by expression to accentuate certain values. Supported formats: RGB, ARGB, and HSL.
  • Expression: Enter the expression that you want to use. Click to open the expression editor.

X-axis

• <Measure>
  • Labels and title: Select what to display of labels and title.
  • Label orientation: Select how to display the labels. To access this option, the chart must have two dimensions. The following options are available:

    • Auto: Automatically selects one of the other options depending on the space available on the chart.

    • Horizontal: Labels are arranged in a single horizontal line.

    • Tilted: Labels are stacked horizontally at an angle.

    • Layered: Labels are staggered across two horizontal lines.

    To view examples of label orientation, see X-axis and Y-axis.

  • Position: Select where to display the measure axis.

Y-axis

• <Dimension>

  • Labels and title: Select what to display of labels and title.
  • Position: Select where to display the dimension axis.
  • Scale: Set the spacing of the dimension axis scale.
  • Range: Select to set the min value, the max value, or both. The min value cannot be larger than the max value. You can use expressions for the values.

• Reference lines
• Expression editor
• Properties panel