Scatter plot charts are best used for cases when you want to discover and showcase relationships between two variables.
For a scatter plot two different variables (categories) are located on the X and Y axis. As such the data point is plotted horizontally and vertically according to its value for each variable.
If the data points are closely grouped or make a clear line or curve - their relationship between two compared variables is strong. Otherwise, if the points are spread out it shows a weaker relationship.
Scatter plot can be found underneath the ‘Scatter & Bubble plot’ section. You can add it to the editor by clicking on it or by drag and drop. There are five data slots you can add data to - ‘X axis’, ‘Y axis’, ‘Size’, ‘Color’ and ‘Name’.
Columns with data types ‘numeric’ or ‘hierarchy’ are a perfect fit for this slot.
The column added to it defines the value slots that are shown on the horizontal axis.
In our example, we will visualize data about countries, so we use ‘Surface in km’ column.
Similar as above, ‘numeric’ and ‘hierarchy’ columns are the best to use. And the value groups will be shown on the vertical axis.
We use ‘Population estimate’ column for this slot in our sample below.
Columns with data type ‘hierarchy’ are perfect here.
This slot works similar to the ‘Group by’ function and colors data points from the same category or group in one color.
We will use ‘Region’ column as a grouping metric in our chart.
As you noticed, in our sample all the data points are the same size which is helpful for visualizing relations and dependencies.
You can also add another dimension by adding data to ‘Size’ slot. Columns with data type ‘numeric’ would work best for it.
This slot allows you to include more info about a certain data point and it will be shown in a tooltip when you hover over one of the dots.
Columns with data type ‘hierarchy’, ‘numeric’ and ‘date time’ would work for this slot.
We will add ‘Name’ column to our slot and as we see, it is now shown in the tooltip when hovering over.
Feel free to play with the chart style by selecting themes to your liking from our library or even create your own custom look.
You can enable or disable the legend, change its position and show or hide specific elements by clicking them.
It is also handy to enable gridlines for axes, or limit your x-axis to a manual number.
This chart can be filtered via the Brush filter by default. You can use this filter by clicking and dragging on an area of the chart. The "Clear filter" button will return the dashboard to the initial, unfiltered state. You can also disable the "Brush filter" in the "Interactivity" section of the chart settings.
Charts similar to the scatter plot are the bubble plot and colored bubble plot charts.