Topic 5: B – Creating Histograms and Boxplots

Published: January 20th, 2015

Category: Learning Statistical Software, SPSS Info and Tutorials

CO-7: Use statistical software to analyze public health data.

Video (2:29)

The following video illustrates exploratory data analysis for one quantitative variable by creating histograms and boxplots using GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER. The following files are associated with this video.

  • Menus and Steps Used:
    • Double-click on the SPSS dataset (STEP3) to open SPSS with that data loaded
    • For Histograms – Go to GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER
      • Choose Histogram from the bottom left menu
      • Double-Click or drag the first selection into the graph preview area
      • Drag a quantitative variable onto the x-axis
      • Using the Element Properties, you can decide whether to display frequencies or percentages on the y-axis, click Apply to save any changes
      • Click OK
    • For Boxplots – Go to GRAPHS – CHART BUILDER
      • Select Boxplots from the lower left menu
      • Double-Click or drag the LAST chart – the single boxplot – into the graph preview area
      • Drag a quantitative variable onto the y-axis (if you have recently used this tool there may already be a variable, reset if needed)
      • Click OK
    • Save SPSS output by going to yhe output and File – Save or by closing SPSS and following the prompts.

This document is linked from our main SPSS page under Software.