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I'm plotting up some data using a ProbabilityScalePlot in Mathematica 8. It currently looks like so:

ProbabilityScalePlot, Automatic Gridlines

Code:

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", AspectRatio -> 0.9, Frame -> True, 
    GridLines -> Automatic, GridLinesStyle -> LightGray, Axes -> False, 
    LabelStyle -> font, 
    PlotStyle -> Directive[PointSize -> Large, Thick, Purple], 
    FrameLabel -> {"Value", "Cum. Prob."}, ImageSize -> 250]

I'd like to change the y grid lines to only show up on the ticks {1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95, 99} but when I change GridLines -> Automatic to GridLines -> {Automatic,Ticks} I get an error.

The error is "A GridLines specification should be None, Automatic, or a list of grid line specifications."

What's odd is that doing the same thing on a different style plot, Histogram for example, works just fine.

Is this a quirk of ProbabilityScalePlot or am I missing something?

If I simplify the input to it's bare-bones (and change the data, sorry):

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {Automatic, Automatic}]

Getting an error...

and then look at the GridLines part of InputForm (formatted and comments added to hopefully make it easier to read):

GridLines ->
    {
     (* X-axis *)
     Charting`ScaledTickValues[
       {#1 & , #1 & },
       Charting`ScaledTickValues[{#1 & , #1 & }][##1]
     ] & ,

     (* Y-axis *)
     Charting`ScaledTickValues[
       {1 + SpecialFunctions`Probit[#1] & ,
        (1*Erfc[(1*(Sqrt[2.] - Sqrt[2.]*#1))/2.])/2. &
       },
       Charting`ScaledTickValues[{#1*0.01 & , #1 & }][##1]
     ] &
    }

It appears that it's correctly assigning something to the x and y axis, but based on the error I assume that it's not evaluating to a list of numbers or grid line specifications. Sadly that InputForm is a bit too complicated for me to read fully, but I can tell that it's using the Z-score of the data point as the actual grid lines or tick marks, but then transforming it to cumulative probability when displaying the y-axis.

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  • $\begingroup$ I didn't read too carefully, but if you know where you want the y-axis gridlines to be, you can manually input them. For example, ProbabilityScalePlot[RandomReal[{0, 1}, {2, 100}], "Normal", AspectRatio -> 0.9, Frame -> True, GridLines -> {Automatic, {1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95, 99}}, GridLinesStyle -> LightGray, Axes -> False, PlotStyle -> Directive[PointSize -> Large, Thick, Purple], FrameLabel -> {"Value", "Cum. Prob."}, ImageSize -> 500] produces a chart with the gridlines where you want them. Is this what you are looking for? $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2015 at 18:21
  • $\begingroup$ @DumpsterDoofus That doesn't work for me - it reports the "A GridLines specification should be None, Automatic, or a list of grid line specifications" error. I didn't mention it before, but I'm using Mathematica v8 (post updated). $\endgroup$
    – dthor
    Jan 21, 2015 at 18:59
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ This is a bug in V8 and V9. Fixed in V10. $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2015 at 21:02
  • $\begingroup$ @MikeHoneychurch Awesome, thanks for the info. $\endgroup$
    – dthor
    Jan 21, 2015 at 23:23
  • $\begingroup$ @Mike I don't think it is fixed in v10, at least not in all cases. Try the examples in dthor's self-answer. The scaling is not handled correctly in the case of negative numbers. $\endgroup$
    – Mr.Wizard
    Jan 22, 2015 at 6:33

3 Answers 3

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A problem still exists with the scaling of grid lines in version 10.0.2. I'll try to explore this later if I have time but for now here is a work-around. Specify the horizontal lines in the plot command and the vertical lines in Show, then combine with Overlay.

gr = ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {None, {1, 5, 50, 95, 99}}];

Overlay[{
  gr,
  Show[gr, GridLines -> {{-2, -1, 1, 2, 3}, None}]
}]

enter image description here

As a for-your-information example one must realize that the actual y scale of the Graphics is not what the plot shows:

Show[gr, FrameTicks -> Automatic]

enter image description here

The actual plot range is revealed with;

PlotRange[gr]  (* undocumented usage *)
{{-4.38919, 5.86036}, {-1.4587, 3.4587}}
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  • $\begingroup$ When I was looking at the InputForm for the function, I noticed the PlotRange thing too: Mathematica is using the Z-score (# Std Dev away from mean) as the actual range, but then transforming it to the cumulative probability when displaying. $\endgroup$
    – dthor
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:30
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Looks like it's a bug:

After more research and test cases, it appears that this is a bug in Mathematica 8. I have no way of checking older or newer versions. Perhaps someone could execute the following test case code and verify?

In Mathematica 8:

The GridLines->{x, y} option of ProbabilityScalePlot does not work as expected under the following circumstances:

+-------------------------------+--------------------------------+
|                               | X GridLine spec has value <= 0 |
+                               +--------------------------------+
|                               |   True       |  False          |
+-------------------------------+--------------+-----------------+
| One or Both GridLine  |  True | No gridlines | Error           |
| specs are "Automatic" |       | displayed;   |                 |
|                       |       | No Error     |                 |
|                       +-------+--------------+-----------------+
|                       | False | No gridlines | OK              |
|                       |       | displayed;   |                 |
|                       |       | No Error     |                 |
+-----------------------+-------+--------------+-----------------+

Go ahead and try out the following Test Cases and see what you get:

First, generate some data from the Normal distribution. The data should have both positive and negative values in order to really see where things freak out.

data = RandomVariate[NormalDistribution[0, 2], 100];

These result in an error:

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {Automatic, Automatic}]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {Automatic, {1, 2, 3}}]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {{1, 2, 3}, Automatic}]

These result in no gridlines being displayed and no error thrown:

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {{0, 1, 2, 3}, {1, 5, 50, 95, 99}}]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {{-1, 1, 2, 3}, {1, 5, 50, 95, 99}}]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {{0, 1, 2, 3}, Automatic}]

And these test cases work as expected:

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> Automatic]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {None, {1, 5, 50, 95, 99}}]
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", GridLines -> {{1, 2, 3}, {10, 50, 95, 99}}]
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    $\begingroup$ With V10.0.2 on OS X 10.10.1 I ran all your examples and the first gave a error. The remaining 8 were fine. $\endgroup$ Jan 22, 2015 at 7:53
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ProbabilityScalePlot uses FrameTicks.

data = RandomVariate[NormalDistribution[1, 2], 100];
ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", 
FrameTicks -> {{Automatic, None}, {Range[-3, 4, .5], None}}]

So if you want to choose your x-axis ticks (here, between -4 and 4 in steps of 0.5), then make the ticks go across the figure in this way:

ProbabilityScalePlot[data, "Normal", 
 FrameTicks -> {Table[{x, x, {.5, 0}}, {x, -4, 4, .5}], Automatic}]

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ It's the lateral gridlines, those associated with Y values, that I'm most interested in. During my search for a solution, I actually found what I think is a bug in ProbabilityScalePlot: try adding the option GridLines->{Automatic, Automatic} - in Mathematica 8, it errors out. $\endgroup$
    – dthor
    Jan 21, 2015 at 20:08
  • $\begingroup$ I use Mma 10.0.0, so can't check bugs in earlier versions. If there's a true bug, there's not much I can do to help except suggest ugly and awkward combinations of separate plot and grid array figures. Or, of course, compute your own CDFs and plot with a non-buggy plot function. $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2015 at 20:09
  • $\begingroup$ I think it's most definitely a bug. I've already sent Wolfram the bug report. See my Answer for details on the bug, if interested. $\endgroup$
    – dthor
    Jan 21, 2015 at 20:34

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