What is the purpose of using a boxplot in data representation?

A boxplot is a valuable tool in data representation primarily because it summarizes a dataset by showing its quartiles and median. This visual format allows you to easily identify the central tendency, the spread of the data, and potential outliers. The box in a boxplot represents the interquartile range, which encompasses the middle 50% of the data, while the lines extending from the box (whiskers) indicate variability outside the quartiles. The line inside the box marks the median, providing a clear visual cue about the data's central value. This makes boxplots particularly effective for comparing distributions between multiple datasets, as they offer a compact summary that highlights essential statistics without overwhelming detail.