Visualize trends with location data on a map
Excel and other spreadsheet software is great for storing and sharing data. There is only so much analysis that can be performed directly in your spreadsheets, especially when handling geographic data. We believe there is a lot of information behind your data waiting to be discovered. That's why we have intentionally built a mapping tool that helps you find the meaning in your location data.
With your typical spreadsheet, you have many functions available to analyze your data. You can, for example, average an entire column or add up across a row. With some pivot table trickery, you can even perform analyses on subsets of your data. As long as you're in the heady world of pure numbers, spreadsheets provide valuable insights.
When your data can be identified geographically, your ability to view a local subset of your data is severely impacted and often impossible. BatchGeo discovers location fields within your data, such as addresses, postal codes, and city names. Our fast geocoding service converts those geographic fields into coordinates, which we plot on a map. You can share this map with colleagues and give everyone the ability to use our data analysis tools described below.
Filter by specific groups of data
Sometimes visualizing your data plotted on a map is enough to provide the analysis you need. However, there's almost always a level deeper that you can go, and our multi-level filtering feature helps you find your way to even more useful insights.
For example, consider this map, which has education and incarceration data from all 50 United States. You could click every marker and view the underlying data, but it's much more interesting when you select specific ranges of high school graduation, for example. Let's say you select the lowest rate, 79.9-82.1%. Any states with data outside of the range become hidden from the map. This basic grouping feature allows you to drill down into a subset of the data and visualize it geographically. You can choose multiple ranges to see more markers.
You can also use the filtering feature to add multiple levels of grouping. In the map above, it lets you answer the question, does education level influence incarceration rate?
Keeping the 79.9-82.1% high school graduation rate selected, you can switch to Prisoners per 100K in the lower left menu of the map. Immediately you see that the lowest rates of incarceration aren't even available. That means states with fewer high school graduates also have higher incarceration rates. That doesn't mean that one causes the other, but it's an example of how you might analyze your data, with results displayed immediately and visually.
Display dense markers as intelligent clusters
Another method of visually understanding your data is to use our map marker clustering feature. You can use this to determine the number of data points in a region, and you can gain insights from the meta-data within each point.
When enabled, cluster circles display with a greater diameter when more markers are present. Additionally, if you have additional data in the map, you'll see the frequency of the data within the current field as a pie chart in your cluster.
In this map of NASCAR's fatal crashes, the events are naturally situated around popular circuits where races take place. The pie chart beneath the clusters refer to the year ranges below. Change the field in the lower left and the data in each cluster's chart will also update, though the count of events within the cluster remain the same.
Average and sum in areas
If you're familiar with the AVERAGE and SUM functions in your spreadsheet, you'll enjoy how BatchGeo incorporates a similar ability in our maps. Using the advanced clustering feature, you can aggregate the values of a specific field as a label for each cluster.
Here you see data analysis performed on median household income by United States county. When viewing the entire country, regions are clustered together with the counties averaged. As you zoom in (or click a cluster), you'll see smaller clusters. showing how the smaller regions contribute to the overall average.
Distance to first location
Sometimes all of your data relates to a single place. Perhaps you want to show the distance of customers from your regional office, for example. In this case, you would include the office location as the first row in your spreadsheet (after headers). Your customer data would go below your office location. Then copy-paste the whole spreadsheet into our easy mapping tool. In Advanced Options, select "Calculate (straight line) distance from first address.” Now your map will display markers according to distance from the office location.
This map uses the distance feature to display major earthquakes in California relative to San Francisco. While you can see there have been a handful nearby, there are other areas in the upper north and southern California with a similar number of quakes.
Analyze your data now
It's time to take your spreadsheet and perform data analysis with the visualization tools provided by BatchGeo. Make a map today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I analyze geographic data with BatchGeo?
BatchGeo provides several data analysis tools including multi-level grouping and filtering, map marker clustering with counts and averages, distance calculations from a reference point, and visual aggregation of numeric data. Simply paste your spreadsheet data and use these tools to discover geographic patterns.
What is map marker clustering and how does it help with analysis?
Map marker clustering groups nearby data points into a single circle that displays the count of markers it contains. Clusters also show pie charts representing the distribution of your data categories. This helps you quickly identify dense regions and understand data composition at different zoom levels. Learn more about our clustering features.
Can I calculate averages and sums on a map?
Yes. Using BatchGeo's advanced clustering feature, you can aggregate numeric values within map regions. Clusters display the average or sum of a selected data field, making it easy to compare values across geographic areas without leaving the map.
How does the distance-from-first-address feature work?
Place your reference location (such as an office or warehouse) as the first row of your spreadsheet. BatchGeo will calculate the straight-line distance from that point to every other location on your map. Enable this under Advanced Options when creating your map.
Can I filter my map data by specific categories or ranges?
Yes. BatchGeo's grouping feature lets you filter map markers by any column in your spreadsheet. Select one or more data ranges to show only the markers that match, and combine filters across multiple data fields for deeper analysis. See our grouping feature for details.
