STATGRAPHICS – Rev.

7/6/2009

Quantile Plot

Summary
The Quantile Plot displays the empirical cumulative distribution for a column of numeric data.

Sample StatFolio: qplot.sgp

Sample Data:
The file bottles.sgd contains the measured bursting strength of n = 100 glass bottles, similar to a
dataset contained in Montgomery (2005). The table below shows a partial list of the data from
that file:

strength
255
232
282
260
255
233
240
255
254
259
235
262

 2009 by StatPoint Technologies, Inc. Quantile Plot - 1

 STATGRAPHICS – Rev. 7/6/2009

Data Input
The data to be analyzed consist of a single numeric column containing n = 2 or more
observations.

 Data: numeric column containing the data to be summarized.

 Select: subset selection.

Analysis Summary
The Analysis Summary shows the number of observations in the data column.

Quantile Plot - strength

Data variable: strength
100 values ranging from 225.0 to 282.0

Also displayed are the largest and smallest values.

Percentiles
The p-th percentile of a continuous probability distribution is defined as that value of X for
which the probability of being less than or equal to X equals p/100. For example, the 90-th
percentile is that value below which lies 90% of the population. The Percentiles pane displays a
table of selected percentiles based on the sample data.

Percentiles for strength

Percentiles Lower Limit Upper Limit
1.0% 227.0 225.169 233.392
5.0% 235.5 233.432 239.973
10.0% 240.0 237.787 243.533
25.0% 249.0 244.925 249.63
50.0% 255.0 252.52 256.76
75.0% 260.0 259.65 264.355
90.0% 267.0 265.747 271.493
95.0% 273.5 269.307 275.848
99.0% 280.5 275.888 284.111

Output includes 95.0% normal confidence limits.

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 STATGRAPHICS – Rev. 7/6/2009

For example, the 90th percentile of the body temperature data equals 99.1, implying that 90% of
all subjects had temperatures of 99.1 or lower. If requested using Pane Options, lower and
upper confidence limits or one-sided confidence bounds may also included, assuming that the
data are samples from a normal distribution. The 95% confidence interval for the temperature at
or below which one would find 90% of all individuals similar to those in the study ranges from
99.03 to 99.38.

Pane Options

 Percentiles: the percentages at which percentiles should be calculated. Set to 0 to suppress

the calculation.

 Include normal limits: check to include confidence limits or bounds based on the
assumption that the data are random samples from a normal distribution.

 Confidence level: level for the limits or bounds.

 Type: select Two-Sided for a confidence interval or a one-sided bound to calculate a lower or
upper bound for the percentile.

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 STATGRAPHICS – Rev. 7/6/2009

Quantile Plot
This pane plots the quantiles (percentiles) of the data.

Quantile Plot

0.8
proportion

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
220 240 260 280 300
strength

In this plot, the data are sorted from smallest to largest and plotted at the coordinates

 j  0.5 
 x j  ,  (1)
 n 

The S-shape shown above is typical of data from a bell-shaped normal distribution.

 2009 by StatPoint Technologies, Inc. Quantile Plot - 4