BOX PLOT Creation in Analytics

[HelloCognos]

Hi,
Does anyone knows how to make a Box and Wishker Plot in Cognos using the Visualization option?
I see the BOX PLOT. If I can't do the Box and Wishker, could someone please provide me the steps
for create the BOX PLOT.

I created the Median, Minmum, Maximum for certain Duration of time from the starting to the ending
of cars in our shop. Like how long it took from first entering to the dealership and exited (Sold) and
then created the Median, Minmum, Maximum. But I'm not sure which values and how to drag these
values to the Box Plot available under Visualization.

Thanks for your help.

[MFGF]

Hi,
Does anyone knows how to make a Box and Wishker Plot in Cognos using the Visualization option?
I see the BOX PLOT. If I can't do the Box and Wishker, could someone please provide me the steps
for create the BOX PLOT.

I created the Median, Minmum, Maximum for certain Duration of time from the starting to the ending
of cars in our shop. Like how long it took from first entering to the dealership and exited (Sold) and
then created the Median, Minmum, Maximum. But I'm not sure which values and how to drag these
values to the Box Plot available under Visualization.

Thanks for your help.

I'm pretty sure Lynn has been using these successfully of late. Hopefully she will be along shortly and can share what she did...

MF.

[HelloCognos]

That would be great.  :) :)

I'm still competing with the MS BI people over here so creating this chart is becoming an important part of the presentation.

I created a Duration, Minimum, Maximum, Median and start TRYING to plug it in to the Box Plot but it is not doing anything at all. I'm not dragging and dropping the values correctly (I think?) pls see attached which is my spec for what I have. Not sure where to drag and drop and what to drag and drop.

:) :)
Thanks a lot!!

[Lynn]

That would be great.  :) :)

I'm still competing with the MS BI people over here so creating this chart is becoming an important part of the presentation.

I created a Duration, Minimum, Maximum, Median and start TRYING to plug it in to the Box Plot but it is not doing anything at all. I'm not dragging and dropping the values correctly (I think?) pls see attached which is my spec for what I have. Not sure where to drag and drop and what to drag and drop.

:) :)
Thanks a lot!!

This link is a simple explanation of some of the concepts pertaining to a box and whisker plot (aka boxplot). One important point to take away here is that the distribution of values is based on a series of numbers. Your query needs to provide this series. The boxplot visualization will work out all the min, max, median, average, and all the other elements required. You don't need to calculate these.

Attached is an example using the Go Sales sample data. In this example I want to show the distribution of order quantity values for each order method for a particular month. My query brings back the quantity for each and every order number in the month that I have filtered for. I also bring in the order method because I want a box plot for each of these (web, telephone, sales visit, etc.).

The box plot has the Quantity as the value (Y-Axis), the order method as the categories (X-Axis), and the order number as the key. Remember the concept that a box plot looks at a series of values to determine all the quartiles, min, max, average, interquartile range, and what are statistically outliers and extreme outliers. The key is quite literally the key :)

In your case I expect you'll want your duration as the Y-Axis and a unique identifier for each instance of a car being worked on in a shop. The X-Axis might be to break it out by dealer or some other grouping, but if you just want a single boxplot for all the data you can create a query calculation with some static string to use.

Hope this helps!

[HelloCognos]

Thanks so much Lynn. I'm going under Visualization now and see what I can do. I really appreciate your time. :)

[HelloCognos]

hi,
Would the duration and unique identifier for each instance goes into Y-Axis? Or only the Duration?
Thanks a lot

[Lynn]

hi,
Would the duration and unique identifier for each instance goes into Y-Axis? Or only the Duration?
Thanks a lot

Duration goes on the Y-Axis and must be a number. The unique identifier goes in the key.

[HelloCognos]

Ok, so the Durations are showing as Days like (80 Days) I guess I need to change them to show only 80 and not 80 Days.
cast(duration,number)? Thanks a lot

[Lynn]

Ok, so the Durations are showing as Days like (80 Days) I guess I need to change them to show only 80 and not 80 Days.
cast(duration,number)? Thanks a lot

The report spec you posted used the _days_between function which would return an integer. Are you doing something differently to determine duration? Or does it come directly from your package as an interval data type?

If you subtract two dates the data type is an interval data type. You'd need to cast that to interval days and then cast that again to integer, but the days between function does this for you so much more simply.

Code Select Expand


_days_between ( [Your End Date] , [Your Begin Date] )


Code Select Expand


cast ( cast ( [Your End Date] - [Your Begin Date], interval days), integer )


[HelloCognos]

Yeap! that worked well. Thanks so much Lynn. We actually do have the Box Plot running now.. You are absolutely awesome!!

[HelloCognos]

Ok one last question and I promise... Is there anyway possible to show the values of Outliers, Median, etc. I don't see the show value option.

:) :) :)Don't hate me!!

[Lynn]

Yeap! that worked well. Thanks so much Lynn. We actually do have the Box Plot running now.. You are absolutely awesome!!

Ok one last question and I promise... Is there anyway possible to show the values of Outliers, Median, etc. I don't see the show value option.

:) :) :)Don't hate me!!

I'm very happy to help and glad you got it working! We are all here to help and learn :)

I am not aware of any way to show values for this chart unfortunately. The best I can suggest is that you can hover over the outliers when running interactively to see the key and the value in a tooltip.

[HelloCognos]

Thank you again. :)