How to prepare Your Data for a Choropleth Map. Location Data Requirements

Location names column in your data set has to match the actual geographic units on the selected map. If for example, the column contains name of countries, but you want to use the USA states map, you will see the "There is no data to display" error on the screen. Find more about this error in Troubleshooting Errors below.

Location Formats

To have your location column recognized by Reveal, provide one of the following formats:

• Names of countries and their subdivisions (provinces, states, departments, regions, etc.) - comply with the official spelling in English or another supported language. Find more information about supported languages in My Data Source Is Not in English below.

• Three-letter country codes defined by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 standard

• Two-letter US state abbreviations established by USPS

• [County name, state name] format e.g., Seneca, New York. You can use this format for USA maps, which include counties.

• [County name, state abbreviation] format e.g., Seneca, NY. This is another format recognized for USA maps, which include counties.

Be consistent with the format you provide. Do not mix full names and codes in the same column. However, there is an exception for some very commonly used country abbreviations. Below, you will find a list of abbreviated country names that you can mix with countries' full names in your location column and still have them recognized by Reveal.

Country Full Name	Accepted Abbreviation
United States	USA
United Kingdom	UK
United Arab Emirates	UAE
South Korea	S. Korea
South Africa	S. Africa
North Korea	N. Korea
North Macedonia	N. Macedonia
Northern Cyprus	N. Cyprus
Central African Republic	Central African Rep.
N. Mariana Island	N. Mariana Is.
U.S. Virgin Island	U.S. Virgin Is.
South Sandwich Islands	South Sandwich Is.
British Indian Teritory	British Indian Ter.
Falkland Island	Falkland Is.
British Virgin Island	BVI
Trinidad and Tobago	Trin./Tob
Solomon Islands	Solomon Is.
St. Pierre and Miquelon	St. Pierre
Fr. S. Antarctic Lands	Fr. S. Antarctic
Equatorial Guinea	Eq. Guinea

Troubleshooting Errors

The Choropleth map was designed to find any match that is available. This way, you'll see a map with partial results doesn't look right, but it will be working regardless. For example, when using the US States map, Reveal will show the states that match the map and the other states will be greyed out.

Troubleshooting the Choropleth Map

If you are getting the "There is no data to display" error, this means the predefined map wasn't matched to any of your information. Try the suggestions below to troubleshoot this issue.

1. Check the Visualization Editor

   • You might have assigned the wrong fields in the Location placeholder. Check if the Location field contains geographic units - continents, countries, states, etc.

   • Your field in the Value placeholder may not contain information for the selected locations. If you have added an additional category in the Map Color placeholder (see this example), then your Value field must contain information for this category. For example, there must be information about votes for each candidate, if you compare candidate votes by state.

   • Also, please confirm that you selected the right MAP in the map selector.

   • If you receive the error when drilling down, make sure the MAP selector contains the map for the level you want to drill down to. For example, currently Swiss cantons are not available in the maps selector and this means you can't drill down into Switzerland even if you have the necessary information in your data source.

2. Check your Data Source. Your data source might be empty or with no location data at all. If not empty, try searching for misspellings or odd punctuation. Check whether you are using the right location format. If your data source contents are not written in the English language, please go to the My data source is not in English section.

If you are getting an outcome, but it's not exactly what you were expecting, please go through the entire Choropleth map documentation, including this topic, the Choropleth Maps, and Working with the Choropleth Map Settings topic.

General Troubleshooting Tips

• Isolate the issue. If possible, try to isolate your problem. For example, if you can’t use a specific location, try with another different location or even a different data source. When trying to isolate your issue, make only small changes at a time.

• Remember/write down the steps you made. Once you start troubleshooting, it is really helpful to remember what you have already done. When asking for support, things get much easier if you know exactly which steps you made in the past.

My Data Source Is Not In English

Reveal doesn't recognize the language of your data source automatically. If your data source information is written in another language, you need to specify it by:

1. Opening the Settings and clicking/tapping on Data is written in.
2. Selecting a language from the dropdown menu.

note

Currently, the Choropleth Map in Reveal supports English and Japanese.

If location information in your data source is written in a different language, you have to translate it outside of Reveal.

Using a Japanese Data Source with the Japan Map

If you want to use a data source in Japanese to display the Japan map and have all Japanese prefectures mapped, you need to provide the location data in the format shown in this table.