Editing Stem-and-leaf display (section)

{{Short description|Format for presentation of quantitative data}}
[[File:stemplot_primes.svg|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|upright=0.5|A stem-and-leaf plot of [[prime number]]s under 100 shows that the most frequent tens digits are 0 and 1 while the least is 9]]
<!-- [[File:Stem leaf plot 001.png|thumb|A stem-and-leaf plot of the values 20, 30, 32, 35, 41, 41, 43, 47, 48, 51, 53, 53, 54, 56 62, 64, 65, 65, 69, 71, 74, 77, 88 and 102]] -->
A '''stem-and-leaf display''' or '''stem-and-leaf plot''' is a device for  presenting [[quantitative data]] in a [[information graphics|graphical]] format, similar to a [[histogram]], to assist in visualizing the [[shape]] of a [[probability distribution|distribution]]. They evolved from [[Arthur Bowley]]'s work in the early 1900s, and are useful tools in [[exploratory data analysis]]. Stemplots became more commonly used in the 1980s after the publication of [[John Tukey]]'s book on ''[[exploratory data analysis]]'' in 1977.<ref>{{Cite book
| edition = 1
| publisher = Pearson
| isbn = 0-201-07616-0
| last = Tukey
| first = John W.
| title = Exploratory Data Analysis
| date = 1977
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/exploratorydataa00tuke_0
}}</ref> The popularity during those years is attributable to their use of [[monospaced]] (typewriter) typestyles that allowed computer technology of the time to easily produce the graphics. Modern computers' superior graphic capabilities have meant these techniques are less often used.

This plot has been implemented in Octave<ref>[https://octave.sourceforge.io/octave/function/stemleaf.html Function in Octave]</ref> and R.<ref>[https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/graphics/versions/3.6.1/topics/stem Function in R]</ref>

A stem-and-leaf plot is also called a '''stemplot''', but the latter term often refers to another chart type.  A simple stem plot may refer to plotting a matrix of ''y'' values onto a common ''x'' axis, and identifying the common'' x'' value with a vertical line, and the individual ''y ''values with symbols on the line.<ref>Examples: [http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/stem.html MATLAB's] and [http://matplotlib.org/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.stem Matplotlib's] stem functions. They do ''not'' create a stem-and-leaf display.</ref>

Unlike histograms, stem-and-leaf displays retain the original data to at least two significant digits, and put the data in order, thereby easing the move to order-based inference and [[non-parametric statistics]].
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