What is swarm.plot?

Swarm plot is a type of categorical scatter plot used to visualize the relationship between a continuous variable and a categorical variable. It is a popular data visualization technique used in exploratory data analysis to show the distribution of data points in a dataset.

In a swarm plot, data points are plotted along the categorical axis, without overlapping each other or leaving any gaps. The data points are jittered to avoid overplotting, the overlapping of points with same or similar data values, which can lead to inaccurate or ambiguous results.

Color can be used to distinguish between different groups or subgroups within the categorical variable, making it easier to see patterns and trends within the data. Swarm plot is particularly useful for datasets with a moderate number of categories and when it is important to see the range and distribution of the continuous variable values for each category.

Swarm plot can be created using various programming languages and data visualization libraries, including Python's seaborn library and R's ggplot2 package. It is a simple and effective way to gain insights from categorical data while minimizing ambiguity and loss of information.