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Treemap reference

How to use and configure treemap charts.

A treemap shows your data organized into dimension hierarchies. For example, you can use a treemap to show the average annual sales of each item in a product category > subcategory > product hierarchy.

A Looker Studio treemap visualization with blue, orange, and purple branches and no value labels.

In this article:

Treemaps in Looker Studio

Data in a treemap is displayed in "branches" (also called "nodes"). Each branch can have zero or more sub-branches, and one parent branch (except for the root, which has no parents). Each branch is displayed as a rectangle, sized and colored according to the values in your data. Sizes and colors are valued relative to all other branches in the graph.

Treemaps are a good hypothesis-generation tool because they can help expose the relative importance of, and the relationship between, different entities.

Treemap examples

The following treemap displays the number of items sold by an online pet store. The branch labels come from the Department and Item dimensions.

A treemap displays Avian, Canine, and Feline Department dimension categories and related Item dimension values.

Here's how the underlying data for this chart is organized:

A Google Sheet with data organized in columns labeled Date, Department, Item, Qty sold, and Price.

Configure the chart

Add a new chart or select an existing chart. Then, use the Properties panel to configure the chart's Setup and Style tab properties.

Set up the chart data

The options in the Setup tab of the Properties panel determine how the chart's data is organized and displayed.

Data source

A data source provides the connection between the component and the underlying dataset. 

  • To change the chart's data source, click the current data source name.
  • To view or edit the data source, click Edit. (You must have at least Viewer permission to see this icon.)
  • Click +BLEND DATA to see data from multiple data sources in the same chart. Learn more about data blending.

Date range dimension

This option appears if your data source has a valid date dimension.

Note: This option does not appear for Google Ads or Google Analytics data sources, as these automatically select a dimension of type Date from the data source.

The Date range dimension is used as the basis for limiting the date range of the chart. For example, this is the dimension that is used if you set a date range property for the chart or if a viewer of the report uses a date range control to limit the time frame.

Dimension 

Dimensions are data categories. Dimension values (the data that is contained by the dimension) are names, descriptions, or other characteristics of a category.

Drill down

This option appears on charts that support it.

Drilling down gives viewers a way to reveal additional levels of detail within a chart. When you turn on the Drill down  optioneach dimension that you add becomes another level of detail that you can drill into. Learn more about chart drill down.

 Levels to show

The Levels to show option determines the granularity of the chart. For example, the sample chart in the Treemap examples section on this page has Levels to show set to 2, causing it to show two levels of detail (Department and Item).

Setting Levels to show to 1 causes the chart to display only one level of detail (Department):

A treemap with the Levels to show option set to 1 displays only Department-level details.

What's the difference between drill down and levels to show?

Drill down lets you focus on a specific level of detail, while Levels to show controls how many levels of detail appear in the treemap. For example, here's the result of drilling down into the chart above. Note that it now displays only one level of detail, but that level is now the Item level.

A treemap displays item details when a user drills into the Item dimension.

See an example of a treemap with drill down turned on (the report is in English only).

Metric

Metrics measure the things that are contained in dimensions and provide the numeric scale and data series for the chart.

Metrics are aggregations that come from the underlying data set or that are the result of implicitly or explicitly applying an aggregation function, such as COUNT(), SUM(), or AVG(). The metric itself has no defined set of values, so you can’t group by a metric as you can with a dimension.

Learn more about aggregation.

Optional metrics

You can add optional metrics by selecting the Optional metrics switch and selecting metrics from the Add metric field selector. You can also drag and drop metrics from the fields list on the Data panel to the Optional metrics selector.

Metric sliders

Turn on the Metric sliders switch to add a metric slider to your boxplot chart.

Total rows

Treemaps can display from 5 to 5000 rows of data.

Group Others

Select the Group Others checkbox to aggregate the results that are outside of the specified Total rows limit into one branch that will have the label Others. This checkbox lets you compare the individual branches against the context of the remaining results. 

When Group Others is not enabled, depending on the chart's configuration, the chart may not display all the data.

Default date range

The Default date range property lets you set a timeframe for an individual chart.

Default date range options

Auto Uses the default date range, which is determined by the chart's data source.
Custom Lets you use the calendar widget to select a custom date range for the chart.
Date compare type Displays comparison data for the selected time period.

Learn more about working with dates and time. 

Filter

Filters restrict the data that is displayed in the component by including or excluding the values that you specify. Learn more about the filter property.

Filter options

Filter name Click an existing filter to edit it. Mouse over the filter name and click X to delete it.
+Add a filter Click this option to create a new filter for the chart.

Chart interactions

When the Cross-filtering option is enabled on a chart, that chart acts like a filter control. You can filter the report by clicking or brushing your mouse across the chart. Learn more about cross-filtering.

Stylize the chart

The options in the Style tab control the overall presentation and appearance of the chart.

Title

If you select the Show title checkbox, you can add a title and customize its appearance and placement on the chart.

Title options

Title Provides a text field where report editors can enter a custom title for the chart.

Title font type

Sets the font type for the title text.

Title font size Sets the font size for the title text.
Font styling options Applies bold, italic, or underline styling to the title text.
Title font color Sets the font color for the title text.
Left Aligns the chart title to the left side of the chart.
Center

Centers the chart title above or below the chart.

Right Aligns the chart title to the right side of the chart.
Top Positions the chart title at the top of the chart.
Bottom Positions the chart title at the bottom of the chart.

Treemap

Max color value Set the color for the highest metric value.
Mid color value Set the color for the median metric value.
Min color value Set the color for the minimum metric value.
Show branch header Show or hide the parent branches.
Show scale Show or hide the chart scale, which appears above the treemap. To see the scale in action, hover over different branches in the chart.

Text

Set the font color, font size, and font family for text in the chart.

Background and border

These options control the appearance of the chart background container.

Background Sets the chart background color.
Border Radius Adds rounded borders to the chart background. When the radius is 0, the background shape has 90° corners. A border radius of 100° produces a circular shape.
Opacity Sets the chart opacity. 100% opacity completely hides objects behind the chart. 0% opacity makes the chart invisible.
Border Color Sets the chart border color.
Border Weight Sets the chart border line thickness.
Border Style Sets the chart border line style.
Add border shadow Adds a shadow to the chart's lower and right borders.

Chart header

The chart header lets viewers perform various actions on the chart, such as exporting the data, drilling up or down, or sorting the chart. Chart header options are as follows:

Show on hover (default) Three vertical dots appear when you mouse over the chart header. Click these to access the header options.
Always show The header options always appear.
Do not show The header options never appear. Note that report viewers can always access the options by right-clicking the chart.
Color Sets the color of the chart header options.

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