Artist customization in box plots

This example demonstrates how to use the various kwargs to fully customize box plots. The first figure demonstrates how to remove and add individual components (note that the mean is the only value not shown by default). The second figure demonstrates how the styles of the artists can be customized. It also demonstrates how to set the limit of the whiskers to specific percentiles (lower right axes)

A good general reference on boxplots and their history can be found here: http://vita.had.co.nz/papers/boxplots.pdf

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# fake data
np.random.seed(19680801)
data = np.random.lognormal(size=(37, 4), mean=1.5, sigma=1.75)
labels = list('ABCD')
fs = 10  # fontsize

Demonstrate how to toggle the display of different elements:

fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3, figsize=(6, 6), sharey=True)
axs[0, 0].boxplot(data, labels=labels)
axs[0, 0].set_title('Default', fontsize=fs)

axs[0, 1].boxplot(data, labels=labels, showmeans=True)
axs[0, 1].set_title('showmeans=True', fontsize=fs)

axs[0, 2].boxplot(data, labels=labels, showmeans=True, meanline=True)
axs[0, 2].set_title('showmeans=True,\nmeanline=True', fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 0].boxplot(data, labels=labels, showbox=False, showcaps=False)
tufte_title = 'Tufte Style \n(showbox=False,\nshowcaps=False)'
axs[1, 0].set_title(tufte_title, fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 1].boxplot(data, labels=labels, notch=True, bootstrap=10000)
axs[1, 1].set_title('notch=True,\nbootstrap=10000', fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 2].boxplot(data, labels=labels, showfliers=False)
axs[1, 2].set_title('showfliers=False', fontsize=fs)

for ax in axs.flat:
    ax.set_yscale('log')
    ax.set_yticklabels([])

fig.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.4)
plt.show()

Demonstrate how to customize the display different elements:

boxprops = dict(linestyle='--', linewidth=3, color='darkgoldenrod')
flierprops = dict(marker='o', markerfacecolor='green', markersize=12,
                  linestyle='none')
medianprops = dict(linestyle='-.', linewidth=2.5, color='firebrick')
meanpointprops = dict(marker='D', markeredgecolor='black',
                      markerfacecolor='firebrick')
meanlineprops = dict(linestyle='--', linewidth=2.5, color='purple')

fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3, figsize=(6, 6), sharey=True)
axs[0, 0].boxplot(data, boxprops=boxprops)
axs[0, 0].set_title('Custom boxprops', fontsize=fs)

axs[0, 1].boxplot(data, flierprops=flierprops, medianprops=medianprops)
axs[0, 1].set_title('Custom medianprops\nand flierprops', fontsize=fs)

axs[0, 2].boxplot(data, whis=(0, 100))
axs[0, 2].set_title('whis=(0, 100)', fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 0].boxplot(data, meanprops=meanpointprops, meanline=False,
                  showmeans=True)
axs[1, 0].set_title('Custom mean\nas point', fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 1].boxplot(data, meanprops=meanlineprops, meanline=True,
                  showmeans=True)
axs[1, 1].set_title('Custom mean\nas line', fontsize=fs)

axs[1, 2].boxplot(data, whis=[15, 85])
axs[1, 2].set_title('whis=[15, 85]\n#percentiles', fontsize=fs)

for ax in axs.flat:
    ax.set_yscale('log')
    ax.set_yticklabels([])

fig.suptitle("I never said they'd be pretty")
fig.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.4)
plt.show()