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General discussion

Data swarm plot, non restrictive graph plotting program

Aug 11, 2010 6:07AM PDT

Does anyone know of any data swarm plot programs. I would like a program that is simple. Enter data for 1 column then data for second column etc. I am using sigma plot right now and too restrictive, almost worse than excel. If not, a program that is easier to use and less restrictive would be good too. As always, free is better. Thanks in advance for the suggestions.

Discussion is locked

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Off the top of my head.
Aug 11, 2010 6:12AM PDT

And hopefully not off with his head I'm thinking the old GnuPlot. Let's see what that finds. Google GNUPLOT and then GNUPLOT ALTERNATIVES.

Bob

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Thanks but the still no swarm plotting capability
Aug 12, 2010 5:59AM PDT

Thanks Bob, I had completely forgot about that program. I am still tinkering with it but I do not believe it has a swarm plotting capability. If anything else comes to mind, please pass the knowledge. Thanks again for the suggestion. I will sift through the gnu like programs for now. If anyone has any other suggestions, please feel free to post.

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Sorry.
Aug 12, 2010 6:17AM PDT
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No problem
Aug 12, 2010 7:13AM PDT

A swarm plot is a data point plot but it will separate the individual points so that all the data points are visible.
http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/stats/display.distribution.html
It is labeled as bee swarm plot on the lower half of the page. It maybe that gnu is able to plot like that automatically but I have not been able to figure out how. Thank you for your help.

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Link, comment.
Aug 12, 2010 8:36AM PDT
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It is one data set, no x
Aug 12, 2010 9:06AM PDT

That plot is one set of y data with no x. If there were 2 sets of data, there would be 2 of those side by side. With all other graphing programs, all of those dots would be in one vertical line so there would be a lot of overlapping. You can arbitrarily assign each y point an x point to separate them but when you have over 400 data points, it's a little too much work to justify it.

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Sounds like 5 minutes in Excel could get this done.
Aug 12, 2010 9:30AM PDT

I wonder why not just get it done?

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Try doing 10 a day
Aug 12, 2010 10:44AM PDT

Thanks anyway

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Sounds like a macro or script would do nicely.
Aug 12, 2010 10:52AM PDT

I'm 99.99% sure GNUPlot will do this. But some want me to write the command. I'm packing and writing a paper and fielding other topics but again this sounds like a script, macro or the right GNUPlot script/command would git it done.
Bob