Tile Chart :: SAS(R) BI Dashboard 4.4: User's Guide, Second Edition

Definition

A tile chart (also called a treemap) is a graphical representation that uses nested rectangles to display hierarchical data.

Example of a Tile Chart Indicator

For a sample of the indicator data that was used to create this indicator, see “Sample Data Structure” for this indicator.

Usage Information

Data best suited for	A tile chart uses rectangular tiles to represent data. The tiles vary according to size to represent a value for different categories. Because the size of each tile is proportional to the value, not to the category, it provides a clear overview of the status or contribution of each category. For example, suppose that each tile represents rice production in different countries. The tile for Vietnam would be quite large compared to the tile for the US, even though the US is a larger country. Because of this difference, the business user can clearly see who the top contributors are in a single map. Tile charts are therefore most effective when there is a need to display a lot of information in a small amount of space. The individual tiles can also be colored to represent ranges.
Not suited for	Tile charts are not intended to show detailed information. Although tooltips and legends can reveal details of each tile, the main point is for the business user to get a rough sense of top contributors (good or bad), or patterns such as the largest categories for a given map.
Target audience	Some audiences might not be familiar with tile charts, and can find them difficult to interpret. It is a good idea to check whether your audience is familiar with this indicator type before using it.
Data aggregation support	This indicator type averages the applicable indicator data.
Range support	A range is required.
Alert support	Alerts are supported. For information, see Customizing Alerts.
Link support	This indicator type can be used to define a link or as the destination of a link. For more information about defining an indicator with a hyperlink, see Adding Links to Indicators or Other Content.
Interaction support	Data filter support: This indicator type can be used as either a source or target indicator. Interactive highlighting support: This indicator type can be used as either a source or target indicator. For more information, see Adding Interactions between Indicators.
Filter multiple items support	Filtering multiple items is supported. For more information, see Supporting Multiple Selections in a Filtered Data Interaction.

General Settings

The General Settings section provides controls that support the following tasks:

Display Settings

The following display settings are used in the preceding figure. For more information, see “Sample Data Structure” for this indicator.

Display Setting	Selection Used for Figure
Range value	Amount per Operation
Tile by	Country
Tile size	Amount
Show labels	This setting is selected.

You can customize the following display settings for this indicator:

(Required) From the Range value list, select the value to which you want to apply the defined range intervals.
(Required) From the Tile by list, select the value to use to create individual tiles in the indicator.
(Required) From the Tile size list, select the value to use to size individual tiles in the indicator.
Select Show labels if you want the indicator to include the labels for each map portion or pie slice.

Sample Data Structure

To create a tile chart, you must provide one variable (tile by) and two measures (tile size and range value).

The following data sample is associated with the figure previously shown. Underneath each column heading is its associated display setting.

Country (Tile by)	Amount (Tile size)	Amount Per Operation (Range value)
Brazil	3,604.20	300.35
Ethiopia	1,145.00	229.0
Indonesia	4,225.00	469.44