Home / Statistical Tools / Analysis Tools / Dot Plot
Dot Plot¶
See individual data points to spot clusters, gaps, and outliers in your data.
What is a Dot Plot?¶
A dot plot displays each observation as a dot along a number line. When multiple observations share the same value (or fall within the same interval), their dots stack vertically, giving you a visual sense of frequency without losing sight of individual data points.
Dot plots are ideal for small to moderate datasets where you want to see every observation. For larger datasets, histograms or box plots may be more appropriate since they summarize the distribution rather than showing each point.
When to Use a Dot Plot¶
- When you want to see the shape of a distribution with every data point visible
- When you need to spot clusters, gaps, or isolated values in your data
- When you want to compare distributions across multiple columns or groups
- When your dataset is small to moderate in size
Dot Scaling for Large Datasets
When a dataset is too large to show every observation individually, Quantum XL scales the dots so that a single dot may represent multiple observations. A note appears on the chart when this occurs.
Example Output¶
A typical dot plot shows dots arranged along a horizontal axis representing data values. Dots at the same value stack vertically, making it easy to see which values occur most frequently and where gaps exist in the data.
What the sheet records about your settings¶
The User input box in the top left of the worksheet does not only echo the columns you picked. Under a Settings heading it also states the options that produced the chart below it, so a sheet opened a year later says what it was built from rather than leaving you to guess which boxes were ticked.
This matters most where the choice leaves no other trace. Two Pareto charts drawn from the same data, one grouping the small categories into an "Others" bar and one dropping them, look like two different data sets unless the sheet says which was done.
Two rules decide what appears:
- Every selector and checkbox is printed on every run, whether or not you changed it from the default. A reader who sees nothing cannot tell a default from a setting the product does not report, so the box states all of them.
- A value you had to type is printed only when you typed it, and so is a setting that only means something once another box is ticked. Its absence is the answer.
The worksheet is protected¶
Under the last block in column A, in small italic text, the sheet carries one note:
This worksheet is protected to prevent accidental changes. To unprotect it, select the Review tab and then Unprotect Sheet.
Every analysis worksheet Quantum XL writes is protected, and every one carries this note. The wording is the same on all of them. Protection is there so that a click or a stray keystroke cannot overwrite a number the chart is drawn from, or move a chart off its anchor.
Three things are still allowed while the sheet is protected: formatting cells, formatting columns, and formatting rows. So you can widen a column, change a number format, or restyle a heading without unprotecting anything. Editing a value, editing a chart, and everything else are blocked.
For those, unprotect the sheet from Excel's Review tab, exactly as the note says. The protection carries no password, so Unprotect Sheet takes it straight off without asking for one.
Under Settings, this tool records one row:
| Row | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Overlay datasets | On or Off |
Overlaying changes the bin width, the axis and where the dots sit, and leaves no other trace on the sheet, which is why it is worth a row of its own.
Learn More¶
- How-To: Step-by-step tutorials for different scenarios
- Preparing Your Data: Data types, layouts, and the behavior matrix
- Options: The dialog's data roles and the automatic binning and dot-scaling behavior