# Is the barchat made by qiime2 using relative abundance and relative frequency the same?

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-the-barchat-made-by-qiime2-using-relative-abundance-and-relative-frequency-the-same/19393
**Category:** User Support
**Tags:** relative-frequency
**Created:** [April 28, 2021, 8:44am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-the-barchat-made-by-qiime2-using-relative-abundance-and-relative-frequency-the-same/19393 "2021-04-28T08:44:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![lys](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/67e7ee/32.png) [@lys](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/lys)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2021, 8:44am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-the-barchat-made-by-qiime2-using-relative-abundance-and-relative-frequency-the-same/19393/1 "2021-04-28T08:44:29Z")

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Dear all！

I did not see the description of relative abundance and relative frequency on the qiime2 official website.  
The default analysis of qiime2 is to use frequency or relative frequency or relative abundance?  
Should the qiime2 analysis process use relative abundance or relative frequency？  
Will there be any difference in the results with relative frequency and relative abundance? Which result shall prevail?

Thanks for any suggestions!

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### Author: ![colinbrislawn](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/colinbrislawn/32/6221_2.png) [@colinbrislawn](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/colinbrislawn)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-the-barchat-made-by-qiime2-using-relative-abundance-and-relative-frequency-the-same/19393/2 "2021-04-28T22:40:32Z")

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Hello @lys,

The `qiime taxa barplot` visualization displays the data as Relative Frequency (out of 100%), so the results on the graph should look the same if your data was relative or not.

> [@lys](#):
>
> The default analysis of qiime2 is to use frequency or relative frequency or relative abundance?

This depends on the plugin or visualization. You can transform your data into `FeatureTable[RelativeFrequency]` if you want to.

> [@lys](#):
>
> Will there be any difference in the results with relative frequency and relative abundance? Which result shall prevail?

I'm not sure I have a perfect answer... Keep in mind that [Microbiome Datasets Are Compositional](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29187837/), so... this data is _already_ relative in some sense!

Colin

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### Author: ![system](https://forum-qiime2-org.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/3X/2/1/21af5fe23cb6f4579467c66a9ed94e55274ca7bd.svg) [@system](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2021, 4:41am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/is-the-barchat-made-by-qiime2-using-relative-abundance-and-relative-frequency-the-same/19393/3 "2021-05-30T04:41:22Z")

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