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Tableau | Data visualisation

How to build Maps in Tableau | Tableau Charts

Maps are super simple in Tableau, but a few details can trip you up if you don't know where to look.

Tim Ngwena •15 February 2023 •3 min read •7 min watch •58K

Part ofTableau Charts

Double-clicking any geographical field (marked with a globe icon) generates a dot map automatically, and you can encode values like sales onto size
Switch from a dot map to a filled map via the marks pane, then use colour rather than size to encode values since geographical areas are fixed
If Tableau doesn't recognise a field as geographical, assign it a geographical role via the field dropdown to enable mapping
Resolve 'unknown places' by editing locations and pointing Tableau to a country/region field to disambiguate locations with shared names
Customise map appearance through background maps, background layers, and opacity to switch on or off details like roads, water and neighbourhoods

0:00Hey, it's Tim again. Today we're pushing on

0:01with charts. Today we're going to do filled

0:04maps. This

0:04is super simple. I love these because they

0:06're so simple, but sometimes you can get

0:08sort of tripped

0:09up by a few details in Tableau. So let me

0:11explain. If you just go ahead and take any

0:14geographical

0:14field, you know it's a geographical field

0:16because you'll see these globe icons. You

0:18can see we

0:19actually have a location hierarchy right

0:21here. If you take any one of those and

0:23double click them,

0:23Tableau will assume that you want to build

0:25a map. So if I just go ahead and double

0:27click on city,

0:28you'll see that Tableau generates a dot map

0:30with all my cities as circles. If I was to

0:33go ahead

0:34and clear the sheet, I'm going to use this

0:36icon right here to do that. And if I just

0:38go ahead and

0:38do that now, and instead let's double click

0:41state, you'll see that again, Tableau draws

0:43a dot map of

0:44all the states. And one of the great things

0:46about this is you can then add context onto

0:48those dots.

0:49For example, you can add the sales value

0:51onto the size, and that means each circle

0:53will change size

0:54depending on the sales. Super simple trick,

0:56nice and easy. It's as simple as that. It's

0:58really that

0:59easy. But sometimes people want to

1:01visualize filled maps. So how does that

1:03work? Let's go

1:04ahead and clear the sheet again, and we'll

1:06go ahead and do exactly the same thing. We

1:08'll double

1:08click on state. And at this point, if you

1:10've watched any of my previous videos about

1:12charts,

1:12you'll know that the way to control this is

1:14to go to this marks pane. And you can see

1:16here the

1:16automatic label is set to a circle. We

1:19actually want this to be a filled map. We

1:21'll go to this

1:22option here, select that, and there we go.

1:24We have our filled map. And now I can apply

1:27the sales value

1:28to the color. It makes more sense to use

1:30color because the geographical area of each

1:32of these

1:32states can't change. So you could try size,

1:35but it makes no sense. So if we put sales

1:37on color,

1:37then you'll see or color it based on the

1:39sales of each of these countries. You might

1:41instead try to

1:41do something more interesting. For example,

1:44profit, put that on color, and there you go

1:46. You've got

1:46maybe a bit more of a story evolving. Now,

1:49it's as easy as that, filled maps, all of

1:51that. And by the

1:52way, you can style this. I'm not going to

1:54spend too much time on this, but you can

1:55change to wonderful

1:56different background maps just by going up

1:58to the map option, going to background maps

2:00, and changing

2:01the one you want. And you can also go to

2:03map options and it will load up a little,

2:05little hover,

2:06which allows you to add more control to the

2:08way the map behaves. And the very last

2:09thing, if you

2:10go to background maps and you go ahead and

2:12you select background layers, this will

2:15allow you to

2:16customize the map you're seeing even more.

2:18For example, switch off and switch on

2:20details on a map.

2:21It's super handy. Go ahead and check that

2:23out. That's not what I'm going to show you

2:24next though,

2:25because I think what I'm going to show you

2:26next is more valuable. If I go to another

2:28sheet,

2:29you see sometimes when you open up a data

2:31set, Tableau doesn't recognize your fields

2:33as location

2:34fields. So for example, if I go ahead and

2:37grab my highlighter, you'll see that these

2:39have been

2:40recognized as geographical fields. Whereas

2:42if you look further down in my data set, we

2:44have some

2:44suspicious items here. We've got states

2:46there and an alternate version of the

2:48region. And so these

2:50aren't showing up as geographical fields.

2:52How can we resolve this problem? Well, it's

2:55to do with a

2:55way that Tableau comes with a data set that

2:57already knows certain locations around the

3:00world. And you

3:01can use that to inform Tableau of what the

3:03field is supposed to be doing. So if I go

3:05ahead and

3:05select states, and then I just go to this

3:07little drop down, I go down to a little

3:09option that says

3:10geographical role, and you can see that

3:12Tableau is aware of certain types of

3:14locations, airports,

3:15area codes, cities, congressional districts

3:18, and a bunch more. What I can do is I can

3:20tell Tableau

3:21that look, this states field actually

3:24refers to the geographical role of state

3:26and province.

3:27And as soon as I do that, you'll see that

3:29we get this geographical icon on the left

3:31hand side.

3:33Now when we double click states, you'll see

3:35it loads up. So far, so good. But for those

3:38of you

3:38who are paying a little bit more attention,

3:40there's one more problem. And this misses

3:42by everyone.

3:43Over here on the bottom right hand side, it

3:46says that it has 10 unknown places. And

3:48this is

3:48typically resolved where cities have the

3:51same name in multiple locations, and Table

3:53au needs

3:54one additional piece of information to

3:55figure out what those cities are. So if we

3:58go ahead and

3:58select 10 unknown, you get this interface

4:00that gives you the different options. You

4:02can either

4:03edit the locations and manually correct

4:05them, you can filter the data, remove them,

4:07or you can show them at the default

4:09position, which is going to be for null

4:11values zero,

4:11which is going to be over near the equator.

4:13You don't want that. So let's go ahead and

4:15select

4:15edit locations and you get this interface.

4:17And this interface, I find it so

4:19frustrating because

4:20it just loads up problems for you.

4:22Essentially, these are all the cities or

4:23states, sorry,

4:24that haven't been fully recognized. And the

4:27main reason is, is because they're

4:28ambiguous.

4:29If you go over here to the top, you'll see

4:31that Tableau is assuming that the country

4:33is the USA.

4:34But if I know my data set well, I know that

4:36there are other countries in this data,

4:39specifically

4:39Canada. So it's not good enough just to

4:41assume that it's the USA. So what I can do

4:44is I can

4:44actually tell Tableau, look, can you use

4:47another field to provide you the country

4:49information. And

4:50because we already know we've got a country

4:52and region filled, you can see that we've

4:53got this

4:54right here, we can actually tell Tableau,

4:56hey, use that field and that will make

4:58these less

4:58ambiguous. And you can see immediately, it

5:00cleared up all of those issues. Now when we

5:03hit OK,

5:04you'll see that we actually get the map red

5:06raw, and we get the unknown sort of message

5:09disappear.

5:10And now we get the additional icons up here

5:12for Canada, which have been added to the

5:13data set.

5:14Superstore added this most recently,

5:16something new in the Tableau world. So that

5:18's super nice

5:18to see that Canada is now part of the data

5:20set. I'll move my face back to the right

5:22hand side.

5:22And now we can carry on on our merry way

5:24making a beautiful map. We'll go ahead and

5:26make this a

5:27fill map. Sometimes I like to do a little

5:29white board, I just think it makes the

5:32different states

5:33look a little bit better. And you can also

5:35do a few tricks with grid maps and so on.

5:37In fact,

5:37there's a few posts on LinkedIn, which I'll

5:39link to in the comments below that show you

5:41how to do

5:41a grid map very, very easily. A Tableau

5:44user called Klaus posted a really nice

5:46guide on how

5:47to do that. So I'll make sure I link to

5:48that. But nonetheless, this is it. Now you

5:50can add some

5:51finesse to this if you want the labels, you

5:53can of course add that just bring state

5:55again onto the

5:57label and then you'll see the labels turn

5:59up. Of course, you've got labels on the map

6:01itself.

6:02If you want to sort of play around with the

6:03opacity of the background as well, if I go

6:05to

6:06background layers, I'll get the option on

6:08the left hand side and I can kind of wash

6:10out the map a

6:10little bit to give my map a little bit more

6:13prominent. I can also choose a sort of a

6:15nicer

6:15style that kind of makes it look good. I

6:17could do a whole bunch of things even go to

6:19an outdoor map

6:20or a satellite map. I can switch off

6:22different water levels as well in

6:24neighborhoods, subways,

6:26roads, streets, all of these are literally

6:28at your fingertips to control and you can

6:30make your

6:30map do whatever you want. But the point

6:33here is maps are super simple, there's so

6:35much you can do.

6:36This is just a scratch of the surface. So

6:38what I'd urge you if this is your first

6:39time building a map,

6:40complete the map and then go and watch tons

6:43of the other videos that are already

6:45available on YouTube

6:46and you can find out more about building

6:48maps in Tableau. Thanks for watching and I

6:49'll see you in

6:50the next one.

6:50you

6:59[ Silence ]

Building dot maps

1.00

Maps in Tableau are some of my favourite visualisations because they’re so simple, yet a few small details can trip you up if you don’t know what to look for.

Any geographical field in Tableau is marked with a globe icon, and they’re often arranged into a location hierarchy. If you double-click one of these fields, Tableau assumes you want to build a map. Double-click on City and you’ll get a dot map with every city plotted as a circle. Clear the sheet and double-click State instead, and you’ll get a dot map of all the states.

The nice thing about dot maps is that you can add context to those dots. Drop your sales value onto size, and each circle resizes according to its sales. It really is that easy.

Creating filled maps

1.00

Sometimes you’d rather show a filled map. Clear the sheet, double-click State again, and head to the marks pane. By default the mark type is set to circle, so switch it to the filled map option and you’ll instantly get a filled map.

For a filled map it makes far more sense to encode your value onto colour rather than size, because the geographical area of each state can’t change. Put sales on colour and each state shades according to its sales. Try something more interesting like profit and you’ll start to see a story emerging across the regions.

Styling and background maps

1.00

You can style your maps too. Go up to the Map option, choose Background Maps, and switch between different background styles. Map Options gives you a hover panel for finer control over how the map behaves.

The real power sits under Background Layers, which lets you customise the map far more, switching individual details on and off so the map shows exactly what you want.

Fixing unrecognised geographical fields

1.00

1.00

Sometimes when you open a dataset, Tableau doesn’t recognise your fields as locations. You might have a clean set of geographical fields up top, but further down some suspicious items like an alternate states field or an alternate region that aren’t showing the globe icon.

Tableau ships with a built-in dataset of known locations around the world, and you can use it to tell Tableau what a field represents. Select your states field, open its dropdown, go to Geographical Role, and you’ll see the location types Tableau knows about, airports, area codes, cities, congressional districts and more. Tell Tableau this field is a State/Province, and the geographical icon appears straight away. Double-click it and the map loads.

Resolving unknown and ambiguous locations

1.00

Here’s the bit everyone misses. Down in the bottom right you may see a message saying there are unknown places. This typically happens when locations share the same name in different places, so Tableau needs one extra piece of information to identify them.

Click the unknown count and you get options: edit and correct the locations manually, filter them out, or show them at the default position near the equator, which you don’t want. Choose Edit Locations and you’ll see all the unrecognised states. Tableau is assuming the country is the USA, but if your data also contains Canada, that assumption isn’t good enough. You can tell Tableau to use another field for the country information. Since we already have a country/region field, pointing Tableau at it instantly clears up the ambiguity.

Hit OK and the map redraws, the unknown message disappears, and the Canadian locations appear. From there you can turn it into a filled map, add a white border to separate the states, bring State onto the label, and play with the background opacity and style to make the map more prominent. You can even switch to outdoor or satellite maps and toggle water, neighbourhoods, subways and roads, all at your fingertips.

This really only scratches the surface. If this is your first map, finish it off and then explore the many other mapping videos out there to go deeper.