Drawing boxplots with pst-plot

Question

I'd like to draw in the same frame a given number of box plots with the macro \psBoxplot from the pst-plot package. I'm retrieving the sampled data from as many files as different box plots by using the macro \readdata. I'd like to use a single file to store the data sets for the different box plots, though.

By using the optional arguments of the \listplot macro I can plot a given number of curves based on different data sets stored in the same file-- the latter data sets only need to comprise different columns in the file. Now, how could I do something similar to this in order to draw box plots?

I believe no MWE is needed for this question, but if required I could provide one.

MWE (as per suggestion):

Let us say I have two data sets that I'm going to number and label by the corresponding numerals; e.g., '1' and '2'. I've stored data set 'i' in the file Data<i>.dat (i=1,2) and I can draw the box plots as follows:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents,pstricks,pst-plot}

\begin{filecontents*}{Data1.dat}
[98   20   79   14   23   21   58   13   19   53  41 11 83 71 10  89 10 46 76]
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{Data2.dat}
[98   20   79   14   23   21   58   13   19   53  41   11 83 71 10 89 10 46 76]
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}

% Let us say my data are bounded between 10 and 100.
\psset{xunit=20mm,yunit=0.5mm}
\begin{pspicture}(0,0)(3,110)
\multido{\ind=1+1}{2}{%
    % Reading data from file
    \readdata{\Data}{Data\ind.dat}
    \rput{0}(\ind,0){\psBoxplot[barwidth=0.5\psxunit]{\Data}}
}
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}

With the MWE I generate the two data files Data1.dat and Data2.dat (right, they store the same data, but that's irrelevant here).

If I were to plot two curves (as opposed to box plots) in the same frame I could do it with \listplot, have the data sets stored in the same file comprising each data set one column, and use the options plotNo and plotNoMax. I'd like to be able to do something like this with box plots.

Answer 1

PGFPlots can handle this. The datasets need to be in different columns, then you can select which dataset to process using y index=<column index>.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{statistics}

\begin{filecontents*}{Data.dat}
98, 32
20, 11
79, 26
14, 9
23, 22
21, 10
58, 25
13, 8
19, 5
53, 29
41, 37
11, 2
83, 25
71, 51
10, 7
89, 17
10, 6
, 41
, 75
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[x=1cm, xtick={1,2}, mark=*]
\addplot [boxplot, draw direction=y] table [y index=0, col sep=comma] {Data.dat};
\addplot [boxplot, draw direction=y] table [y index=1, col sep=comma] {Data.dat};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 2

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{Data.dat}
98, 32
20, 11
79, 26
14, 9
23, 22
21, 10
58, 25
13, 8
19, 5
53, 29
41, 37
11, 2
83, 25
71, 51
10, 7
89, 17
10, 6
, 41
, 75
\end{filecontents*}
\usepackage{pst-plot}

\begin{document}
\begin{pspicture}(-1,-1)(5,6)
\psaxes[axesstyle=frame,dy=1cm,Dy=20,ticksize=4pt 0](0,0)(4,5)
\psreadDataColumn{1}{,}{\data}{Data.dat}
\rput(1,0){\psBoxplot[fillcolor=red!40,yunit=0.05]{\data}}
\psreadDataColumn{2}{,}{\data}{Data.dat}
\rput(3,0){\psBoxplot[fillcolor=blue!40,yunit=0.05]{\data}}
\end{pspicture}

\end{document}