Working with Histograms

About Histograms

A histogram represents the distribution of values for a single measure. A series of bars represents the number of observations in the measure that match a specific value or value range. The bar height can represent either the exact number of observations or the percentage of all observations for each value range.

Note: If you use the default number of bins, then the minimum and maximum values on the histogram axis might not match the actual extent of your data values. If you specify the number of histogram bins, then the axis matches your data values exactly.

Specify Properties for a Histogram

On the Properties tab, you can specify the following options:

Name

specifies the name of the visualization.

Title

specifies the title that appears above the graph.

Note: The Title option 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.

Show grid lines

displays grid lines for each tick on the response axis.

Bar direction

specifies whether the bars are vertical or horizontal.

Frequency

specifies whether the frequency axis displays the number of values in each range (Count) or the percentage of values for each range (Percent).

Use default bin count

Specifies whether to use the default number of bins (value ranges) for the histogram. The default number of bins is determined by the number of data values in your histogram.

Bin count

Specifies the number of bins (value ranges) for the histogram.

Data Roles for a Histogram

The basic data role for a histogram is a measure. You can assign only one measure to a histogram.