Microsoft Excel: Median, Quartile range, and Box Plots

Consider the following three datasets. Now, select them together, select the Insert option, select Insert Statistic Chart, and then Box and Whisker.

In a boxplot, the central line is the data's median or second quartile. The box edges indicate the first and the third quartiles. Lastly, extreme points show the minimum and maximum values in the selected data range.

In Microsoft Excel, the data median is determined using the function MEDIAN.

Similarly, the minimum and maximum values are determined using MIN and MAX functions.

Two different functions — QUARTILE.EXC and QUARTILE.INC — return the quartile values.

Function QUARTILE.EXC excludes the endpoints or the minimum and maximum values of the data to calculate quartiles. Select the data range for the array, and select 1, 2, or 3 for a quart to get the first, second, and third quartile values.

Function QUARTLE.INC considers the entire range of values. Here, select 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 for the quart values to get the data's minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum values.