Re: st: Boxplots - avoiding the box in a strata with a small number of observations

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

You can combine two or response variables with -by()- within -stripplot-.

stripplot Baseline Firstdose Thirddose , by(wtstrata, row(1)) box vertical

would be a start

On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
> Allowing two or more -over()- options is characteristic only of -graph
> box-, -graph dot-, -graph bar- etc. It is not possible in practice
> with (a) -graph twoway- or (b) any command based on -twoway- such as
> -dotplot- (although (b) at least is programmable).
>
> -stripplot- (SSC) offers most if not of the flexibility you need. To
> concoct a problem similar to yours, I typed
>
> sysuse auto
> gen himpg = mpg > 20
>
> Then after some experimentation, this plot
>
> stripplot weight , over(rep78) by(himpg) vertical box(barw(0.5)
> blcolor(gs8))  width(100) center stack height(0.4)
>
> seems adequate.
>
> -stripplot- helps because
>
> 1. Both -over()- and -by()- are supported, thus allowing two-way
> classifications.
>
> 2. If a group contains only one value, the box would be a bar of zero
> length, which Stata won't (can't) show visibly.
>
> 3. You can adjust the box colour to play down the boxes while keeping
> them visible. I think this is a good idea generally.
>
> 4. You can tinker with bin width, spacing of points and box width
>
> Nick
>
> N.B. One stratum, two or more strata.
>
> On Tue, Sep 4, 2012 at 1:37 AM, Richard Hiscock
> <richardjhiscock@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I have continuous data (plasma level of drug) in patients, who received a dose determined by body weight (in five strata), measured at three time points.
>> Whilst the lower strata have 40+ patients the highest two levels the number of patients is very small n = 5 & 2.
>> To graphically present the plasma levels I would prefer to show individual data points but using dotplots however the command doesn't seem to allow for over commands (with data now in the long form).
>>
>> dotplot plasma_level , over(time) over(wtstrata)
>>
>> I can achieve close to what I want using boxplots, however I feel that boxes for the strata  with 5 & 2 only observations is not appropriate. Is there anyway to have individual data points displayed for these strata? The command I'm using in Stata 12 is
>>
>> gr box  Baseline Firstdose Thirddose , over(wtstrata)
>>
>> Any help or other presentation suggestions would be much appreciated
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