Patent ID: 8451271

Claim:
A computer implemented method of plotting a graphically displayed box chart, the method comprising: receiving, at a host computer system, a data set, wherein the data set includes a first axis and a second axis and the data set consists of ordered pairs; determining that the first axis is discrete and that the second axis is continuous; rounding values of the second axis' portion of the ordered pairs of the data set, based on a first level of granularity defined for the data set; based on the rounded values, creating data point groupings; based on the data point groupings, determining a total number of data point locations for the first axis; jittering values of the first axis' portion of the ordered pairs of the data set at each determined data point location, wherein the jittering comprises moving one or more of the values in one or more directions along the first axis by altering the values based on a second level of granularity defined for the data set; reverting the rounded values back to the original values; based on the data point groupings and the jitter values, generating a table of a plurality of graphically represented configurations of data points, wherein each configuration in the table includes a distinct number of data points within the configuration, wherein the plurality of graphically represented configurations position the data points such that each of the data points is positioned equally within the graphically represented configuration, wherein each configuration entry in the table comprises a unique clumping arrangement of data points, and wherein the unique clumping arrangement comprises a co-equal value for each data point within the clumping; based on the jittered values for the first axis and the original values for the second axis, plotting, at the host computer system, the data points in a box chart in the unique clumping arrangement; and displaying the box chart on a display screen.