Create beeswarm and beanplot

[Gunnar Ek]

Hi all,

I would like to create a beeswarm plot and a beanplot. My dataset contains a numeric variable - I compare this variable over subgroups and wish to graph this in a beeswarm/beanplot with medians and IQR. Does anyone know the commands in Stata for this? I understand this is possible in R, but I don't have access to R unfortunately. I'm using Stata 16.0.

Many thanks!

Best
Gunnar

[Nick Cox]

The official command dotplot provides a very good approximation to either design. Rather more flexibility is available through stripplot from SSC. Indeed, and I am involved here, I think that the latter allows some displays that can be better than those designs, although much depends on (1) the data, including the sample size(s) and how awkward each distribution is (2) the readership and how comfortable they might be with a design they may not have seen before (or often).

(In related territory, a standard example is the scatter plot, which has been called too difficult for general readers, which astonishes those of us who encountered it in childhood.)

That said, you appear to be implying that the terms refer to two different plots. if you think that, you may need to tell us in what important sense they differ.

It's not part of my brief to encourage (or discourage!) the use of R but it's surely the easiest statistical environment to access unless you are behind a firewall that prohibits any downloads. I have downloaded it often (although not used it often).

[Gunnar Ek]

Thanks for a quick reply. Dotplot and stripplot seem to work just fine for now. Many thanks!