Working with Heat Maps

About Heat Maps

A heat map displays the distribution of values for two data items by using a table with colored cells. If you do not assign a measure to the Color data role, then the cell colors represents the frequency of each intersection of values. If you assign a measure to the Color data role, then the cell colors represent the measure value for each intersection of values.

Specify Properties for a Heat Map

On the Properties tab, you can specify the following options:
Name
specifies the name of the visualization.
Graph title
specifies the title that appears above the graph.
Note: The Graph title is disabled if you select Generate graph titles.
Generate graph titles
specifies that the graph title is generated automatically based on the data items in the visualization.
Bin count
specifies the number of value ranges that are represented as cells. Bin count only affects measures.
Show borders
specifies that the borders between cells are visible.
Category label policy
specifies how the values for the category axis are displayed when there is not enough space. Select one of the following options:
Automatic
specifies that the visualization will select the best label policy according to your data and the space requirements.
Stagger
places the labels with an alternating vertical offset.
Thin
displays a subset of the labels.
Rotate
displays the labels at an angle
Note: The Category label policy option has no effect if the heat map contains no categories.

Data Roles for a Heat Map

The basic data roles for a heat map are:
X Axis
specifies the data item that is assigned to the X axis.
Y Axis
specifies the data item that is assigned to the Y axis.
Color
specifies a measure that determines the cell color. If you do not assign the Color data role, then the cell color indicates frequency.

Applying Data Analysis

About Data Analysis

For heat maps, you can apply the following data analyses:
Correlation
identifies the degree of statistical correlation between the variables in the heat map.
Regression
plots a model of the relationship between the variables in the heat map.
Both correlation and regression analysis are applied together when you enable correlation analysis.

Enable Data Analysis

To apply data analysis, select Optionsthen selectShow Correlation or click Correlation from the visualization toolbar.
The degree of correlation is indicated by a text label in the legend below the heat map. To see additional information about the correlation results, click About these correlation results.
By default, a regression fit is applied to your plot when you enable correlation analysis. The regression fit appears as a red line. To see additional information about the regression results, click About these regression results in the legend.