Treemapping

In <a href="/facts/Information_visualization/DSHteV85">information visualization</a> and <a href="/facts/Computing/Kghtm9fX">computing</a>, treemapping is a method for displaying <a href="/facts/Hierarchical/mYJyqFrG">hierarchical</a> data using <a href="/facts/Nesting_(computing)/w614LWzv">nested</a> figures, usually rectangles.
Treemaps display hierarchical (<a href="/facts/Tree_(data_structure)/RcXz9noF">tree-structured</a>) data as a set of nested rectangles. Each branch of the tree is given a rectangle, which is then tiled with smaller rectangles representing sub-branches. A leaf node's rectangle has an area proportional to a specified <a href="/facts/Dimension_(metadata)/YcQYjtqJ">dimension of the data</a>. Often the leaf nodes are colored to show a separate dimension of the data.
When the color and size dimensions are correlated in some way with the tree structure, one can often easily see patterns that would be difficult to spot in other ways, such as whether a certain color is particularly prevalent. A second advantage of treemaps is that, by construction, they make efficient use of space. As a result, they can legibly display thousands of items on the screen simultaneously.

Treemapping open-in-new

Treemapping