Stat-Xplore : Map View

If your table contains geographical data, then you can use Map View to display the results on a map. The Map View tab becomes enabled whenever you create a table containing a geographical field.

In some cases, the Map View tab may not be enabled even after you add a geographical field to your table:

Stat-Xplore does not support mapping when your table contains items from multiple levels of a hierarchy (for example, a table containing both a Country, such as England, and a Region, such as London).
If the geographical field contains only non geographical items (such as "Unknown" or "Not Applicable") then Stat-Xplore to prevents access to Map View when those items are in the table. In this case you can move your mouse over the Map View tab to see a ToolTip listing the items are preventing you from accessing mapping.

Create a Map

Create a table containing a geographical field. For example, using the sample People on Universal Credit dataset, create a table containing some values from the Region field.

The Map View table becomes active.
Click Map View:

Stat-Xplore starts building the map. Depending on the complexity of your table, this may take some time.

Customise the Map

Once you have generated your map, you can use the options to customise what is shown in the map and how it is displayed:

Option

Description

Example

Field

Select the field or summation option you want to visualise on the map. The options available will depend on the fields and summation options that were included in your original table.

Data Classifier

Select the data ranges that will be displayed on the map:

Natural Breaks	Stat-Xplore will calculate the ranges automatically based on natural breaks in the data. The natural breaks are calculated using the Dalenious Hodges Algorithm. This option is a good choice when your data is not evenly distributed. This algorithm groups data into classes that are themselves as separate as possible, but where the data values within each class are fairly close together. That is, it maximises the differences between the classes and minimises the differences within the classes. This classification can be used to discover spatial patterns within the data, but it can lead to some classes being populated by low numbers of observations.
Equal Distribution	Equal Distribution puts the same number of records into each class. For example a data set containing 100 records will be assigned so that approximately 20 records fall into each class of a five class classification. When using Equal Distribution it is important to watch out for any extreme data values (outliers) that might affect the thematic map. These outliers will be incorporated into a class without regard to the distribution of the remaining values in the class. This method can give the most evenly coloured map but should only be considered for data sets with a nearly even distribution.
Quantile	This option divides records into class ranges of equal spread. For example, in a field of data values ranging from 1 to 100 the records would be assigned (in the 5 class case) into the ranges 1–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–80 and 80–100. These ranges mean 1 to less than 20, 20 to less than 40 etc., so the classes do not overlap. With this method classes with few or no data records can be created, depending on the distribution of your data. For example, the records 1, 4, 6, 10, 10, 89, 90, 92, 95, 100 (that is, highly skewed to either end of the overall data range) will cause the middle three classes to have no records. In this case only two colours will appear on the map. To produce even colour representation on the map, the data would need to contain nearly evenly distributed values.
Custom Ranges	Select this option to choose your own data ranges. Custom ranges should always be developed with reference to the distribution of the data being mapped. The Custom Range option can be particularly useful when developing a series of maps that are designed to be compared. Enter the start and end values for each range and then click Update Ranges to update the map.

Palette

Choose the colours used to highlight the different regions in the map.

Number of Ranges

Select the number of different coloured ranges you want to display on the map.

Thematic Opacity

Use the slider to control the opacity of the coloured areas on the map.

At 0% the areas highlighted on the map will be completely transparent and only the outlines will be visible.
At 100% the areas highlighted on the map will be completely solid and the map underneath will not be visible.

Zoom

Use the zoom buttons to zoom in and out of the map.

Pan

Click and drag anywhere on the map to pan around the map.

Map Type

Select an option from the drop-down list in the top right corner to change between the different map types. By default, you can select from a streetmap, satellite view and a blank map.

Pop-Up Information

Click any region in the map to see the name and value for this region.

Please note that the name that is displayed in the pop-up is provided by the external mapping service, so it may not match the current user interface or dataset language. It will show the name in whatever language your administrator used when configuring this region in the external mapping service.

Edit What is Displayed in the Map

If you see these options at the top of the map, you can use them to change the areas that are visualised on your map from within Map View itself:

Option buttons visible

When you click one of the buttons, the map changes to "Edit Mode". In this mode, all the areas currently included in the map visualisation are highlighted in a single colour:

Map in single grey colour

You can then select areas you want to remove from the map, as well as add new areas to the map, even if they were not included in the table (although you can only add areas to the map if there is data for those areas in the dataset). Adding areas to the map will also add them to the table (you can see this change if you switch back to Table View).

The three options work as follows:

Option

Description

Single

Click an area that is currently highlighted to remove it from the map.
Click an area that is not currently highlighted to add it to the map.

Rectangle

The rectangle is similar to freehand, except that you click and drag to draw a rectangle over the areas you want to toggle, instead of a freehand shape.

Polygon

Click to start drawing a shape, then click again as many times as you need to add a point and continue drawing the shape. To complete the shape, either click again on the first point, or double-click.

Any areas underneath the shape that are currently included in the map will be removed.
Any areas underneath the shape that are not currently included will be added to the map.

When you have finished selecting regions, click Apply Changes to apply your changes and return to the map visualisation.

To exit without applying any of your changes, click whichever one of the buttons is currently selected. This will exit Edit Mode without applying any of your changes.

You can also modify the areas that are visualised on the map by switching back to Table View and modifying the table, then returning to Map View.

Download the Map

To download your map:

Select the download format from the drop-down list. Currently you can choose from either KMZ format (which you can use in tools such as Google Earth) or PDF.
Click Go. The map will download at the current zoom level, showing the same section of the map that is currently visible on screen.

Maps cannot be imported back into Stat-Xplore. To access the same map in future sessions you need to save the table used to create the map. You can then reopen the saved table and click Map View to recreate the map.

Note for IE9 Users: "The Browser you are using Cannot Display this Map"

If you are using Internet Explorer version 9, you may see an error message in Map View similar to the following, indicating that "the browser you are using cannot display this map (too many vertices)':

The easiest way to resolve this issue is to upgrade to a more recent browser, such as the latest version of Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox.