What does a negative IQR mean?

The Interquartile Range (IQR) is a measure of statistical dispersion that represents the range between the first quartile (Q1) and the third quartile (Q3) of a dataset. A negative IQR would imply that Q1 is greater than Q3, which is not possible in a properly ordered dataset. This situation might indicate an error in data collection or processing, as quartiles should always follow the order Q1 ≤ Q3.