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Distribution

Stem-and-leaf plot

Splits values into leading and trailing digits to show distribution while retaining individual values.

  • Table
  • Distribution
  • Exact-value lookup

What it answers

What are the values and their distribution?

Shape
Aligned stems and digit leaves
What it shows
Distribution shape while retaining individual observations.

Example

The question

What do last month’s daily sales figures look like at a glance?

Daily sales, EUR thousand (stem-and-leaf display)

Daily sales, EUR thousand (stem-and-leaf display)Stems are tens, leaves are units, so 3 | 5 means EUR 35 thousand. Values run from 18 to 61; most days fall in the 20s and 30s.Stem (tens)Leaf (units)18 921 3 4 4 7 8 930 1 1 2 3 5 5 6 840 2 4 7 953 661Key: 3 | 5 means 3526 days in the month
Daily sales, EUR thousand (stem-and-leaf display)Stems are tens, leaves are units, so 3 | 5 means EUR 35 thousand. Values run from 18 to 61; most days fall in the 20s and 30s.Stem (tens)Leaf (units)18 921 3 4 4 7 8 930 1 1 2 3 5 5 6 840 2 4 7 953 661
Stems are tens, leaves are units, so 3 | 5 means EUR 35 thousand. Values run from 18 to 61; most days fall in the 20s and 30s.

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

Small numeric samples where retaining values is useful.

Avoid it when

Large datasets, too many digits or an unclear leaf unit.

How to read it

Read the stem key, then combine each stem with its leaves.

Note

State leaf units. Not a baseline-stem plot.

The data you need

Layout
Long table
Fields
Value: number
One row is
One raw numeric observation. What is the grain?
Rules
Use raw observations unless the chosen renderer explicitly accepts summaries or bins. Define missing-value treatment.
Optional
Optional frequency Weight. Pre-binned alternative: BinStart,BinEnd,Count; do not treat counts as raw values.
Preparation
Keep raw numeric observations, group them if needed and handle missingness explicitly. Choose bins, bandwidth or summary conventions as appropriate to this specific plot.
Units
The measurement axis retains its original unit. Frequency uses observations; normalised frequency divides by group sample size; density also depends on interval width.
Example of the input layout: Long tableA long table: one row per observation, few columns. New data adds rows.ValueAABBC
A long table: one row per observation, few columns. New data adds rows.

Worked example

Values 10,12,12,18,23. With leaf unit 1: stem 1 has leaves 0,2,2,8; stem 2 has 3. Recover each original number.

Value
10
12
12
18
23
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