Categories Drop Zone

The Categories drop zone appears when working with column, bar, line, and area charts. The Categories zone drives the representation of the data categories (elements) in the visualization.

Only blue chips may be added to the Categories zone. You may add a full hierarchy or hierarchy level, a custom list or formula (if the output is a list of elements), or specified elements from a given hierarchy.

The location of the Categories chip in the visual will be determined by the selected visual type. For instance, column, area, and line charts present the categories along the y-axis, while bar charts present the categories on the x-axis. The example below shows a lollipop chart; this chart type displays the measures on they-axis and categories on the x-axis. Here, the Promotion Type hierarchy was added to Categories, and is displayed along the x-axis (green highlight).

In this example, we see the same query displayed as a bar chart. Now the Promotion Type hierarchy is displayed along the y-axis:

Categories Content Menu

The context menu of the Categories zone exposes the following functions:

  • N-of-N: only when there is more than one blue chip in the zone. Perform a series of nested loop queries.
  • Quick Filter: apply a quick filter to all chips in the selected drop zone.
  • Quick Sort: apply a quick sort to all chips in the selected drop zone.
  • Remove All: remove all chips from the selected drop zone.