# Gneiss balances boxplot doesn't show up

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/gneiss-balances-boxplot-doesnt-show-up/2169
**Category:** User Support
**Tags:** gneiss
**Created:** [December 11, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/gneiss-balances-boxplot-doesnt-show-up/2169 "2017-12-11T17:26:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kparke10](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/kparke10/32/906_2.png) [@kparke10](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/kparke10)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/gneiss-balances-boxplot-doesnt-show-up/2169/5 "2017-12-28T12:42:37Z")

</div>

@mortonjt

This might be the problem @rlm spoke of. The metadata category: 'Patient' consists of five separate groups (AH, CR, DD, PS, ZC), while the metadata category 'Group' consists of two separate groups (AE or Rem).

Box and proportion plots are **not** generated when 'Patient' is specified, while they are generated when 'Group' is specified.

Here is sample code:

```auto
# metadata category: Patient (no box or proportion plot)
qiime gneiss balance-taxonomy \
    --i-table comp.qza \
    --i-tree hierarchy.qza \
    --i-taxonomy taxonomy.qza \
    --p-taxa-level 5 \
    --p-balance-name 'y0' \
    --m-metadata-file sample-metadata.tsv \
    --m-metadata-category Patient \
    --o-visualization y0_patient.qzv

# metadata category: Group (produces box and proportion plots)
qiime gneiss balance-taxonomy \
    --i-table comp.qza \
    --i-tree hierarchy.qza \
    --i-taxonomy taxonomy.qza \
    --p-taxa-level 5 \
    --p-balance-name 'y0' \
    --m-metadata-file sample-metadata.tsv \
    --m-metadata-category Group \
    --o-visualization y0_group.qzv
```

Here are the .qzv files:  
[y0\_patient.qzv](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/qiime21/original/1X/d1ee14099ced4431fc1d0738d4018061c1a0d9e7.qzv) (75.0 KB)  
[y0\_group.qzv](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex002/uploads/qiime21/original/1X/39c225ac50eeb1534d0aa044cb7ac7200388c2b3.qzv) (111.2 KB)

I am led to believe that differentially abundant OTUs or SV's can only be calculated using two groups. Therefore, box and proportion plots would not be generated when there are more than two groups. I suspect for the dataset above, I would need to compare two patients at a time, rather than five. But I am likely wrong? From this post, more than two groups are in the boxplot: [Balance interpretation confusion](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/balance-interpretation-confusion/946)

Hopefully, this information can clear up the problem.

-Kristopher

---

_[View the full topic](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/gneiss-balances-boxplot-doesnt-show-up/2169)._