How do I use this stem and leaf plot generator?

Paste or type your numeric data into the input box, separated by spaces, commas or line breaks. Choose Integer data or 1 decimal place, optionally tick Split stems (0–4 / 5–9), and click Generate plot. The tool returns a sorted stem-and-leaf display and summary statistics such as count, minimum, maximum, mean and median.

Does the calculator handle decimal data?

Yes. In 1 decimal place mode, the stem is the integer part and the leaf is the first decimal digit (for example 12.3 becomes 12 | 3). For more complex datasets, you can multiply all values by 10 or 100 to work with whole numbers before generating the plot.

What does splitting stems (0–4 / 5–9) mean?

Splitting stems means each stem can appear on two rows: one row for leaves 0–4 and a second row for leaves 5–9. This spreads out the data vertically and can make the shape of the distribution easier to read when many values share the same stem.

Can I sort the leaves ascending or descending?

Yes. By default leaves are shown in ascending order, which is standard in statistics textbooks. You can also choose descending order if you prefer to emphasize large values first.

Stem and Leaf Plot Generator – Fast Text-Based Data Display

Create a stem and leaf plot from raw data in seconds. Paste your numbers, choose how to split stems and leaves, and get a clean text-based display that preserves every value.

This tool is ideal for GCSE, AP Statistics, college intro stats, and quick exploratory data analysis when a back-of-the-envelope visualization is all you need.

What is a stem and leaf plot?

A stem and leaf plot (or stem-and-leaf display) is a compact way to visualize quantitative data using text only. Each observation is split into:

Stem – all but the last digit (or all but the first decimal digit).
Leaf – the last digit (or the first decimal digit).

For example, with integer data 12, 15, 19, 21, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31 we can write:

1 | 2 5 9
2 | 1 1 3 5 7 9
3 | 1

Here, the stems 1, 2, 3 represent the tens (10s, 20s, 30s) and the leaves represent the ones digit. The resulting display shows the distribution’s shape, clusters and possible outliers while keeping every data value visible.

How this calculator builds the plot

1. Parsing and cleaning data

The generator accepts values separated by spaces, commas or line breaks. It removes empty entries, converts decimal commas to dots (e.g. 12,5 → 12.5) and rejects any non-numeric items.

2. Splitting into stems and leaves

Two main modes are supported:

Integer data: stem = floor(x / 10), leaf = |x| mod 10 after rounding to the nearest integer.
1 decimal place: the value is multiplied by 10 and rounded, the stem is the integer part and the leaf is the first decimal digit.

3. Optional split stems

When Split stems (0–4 / 5–9) is enabled, each stem may appear on two rows:

Row 1: leaves 0–4
Row 2: leaves 5–9

This is common in textbooks when many values share the same stem, as it spreads the distribution vertically and makes patterns easier to see.

Why use a stem and leaf plot?

It shows the shape of the distribution (skew, symmetry, gaps).
It preserves each original value (unlike a histogram with bins).
It can be built quickly by hand for small data sets.
It is excellent for teaching median, quartiles and spread without a graphing calculator.

Stem and Leaf Plot Generator

1. Enter your data

2. Configure stems and leaves