Linking and brushing

Linking connects the panels of a workspace. When you select objects in one panel, the same objects are highlighted in the other panels that take part (see Limits). You can select on the map, in a table or in a chart. This is sometimes called brushing. This article uses a copy of the Diabetes and poverty sample with a map, a table, a scatterplot and a histogram of its 3,109 US counties. Every step below was run on Vesta Online, and the screenshots come from that run.

The selection belongs to one workspace tab. A second tab in the same project has its own selection: with 193 counties selected in this workspace, the first tab showed nothing selected. Panels link through the dataset they show: here the map, the table, the scatterplot and the histogram all read the US counties dataset.

Link a map, a table and charts

1. 1Add a table and a chartOpen a workspace of a project you own, choose Add panel at the foot of the grid, and choose Create new. Add a Map, a Table, a Scatter Plot and a Histogram to the four slots. Pick Diagnosed diabetes (% of adults) for the map and the histogram, Diagnosed diabetes and Poverty rate (% of people) for the scatterplot, and the US counties dataset for the table. Choose Create workspace. The new workspace opens as its own tab, and every panel reads the same 3,109 counties.
2. 2Choose the Select toolA new map opens on the Pan tool, which only moves the map. Choose the Select tool in the map's left rail (the dashed box). Its tooltip reads "Select — click a feature, or drag a box; hold Shift to add".
3. 3Select counties on the mapDrag a box over part of the map. The counties inside the box are selected: the same counties are highlighted in the scatterplot and the histogram, their rows are shaded in the table, and the map legend gains a Selected row with the count. Here the box caught 221 counties.
4. 4Read the Selected groupThe Statistics panel keeps its all-counties rows and adds a Selected (n) group below them that repeats the same measures for just the selected counties. The group reads Selected (221), the table footer reads "221 selected" and the legend row reads 221: the three counts agree.
5. 5Select in a chartDrag a box around the points at the right of the scatterplot, where the diabetes rate (the horizontal axis) is highest. The new selection replaces the one the map made: here 193 counties whose diabetes rates run from 17.9 to 24.1 percent, against a mean of 13.5 for all 3,109 counties. The map, the table, the histogram and the Selected group follow at once.
6. 6Clear on the mapWith the Select tool chosen, click on empty map, away from any county. The selection is cleared in every panel: the legend row, the table footer and the Selected group disappear.
7. 7Clear the selectionA press on empty space inside the scatterplot, with no drag, clears the selection the same way. Select in the scatterplot again, press on an empty part of the plot, and the legend row, the table footer and the Selected group disappear.

What you should see

The workspace

Four panels, one dataset

Map, table, scatterplot and histogram all read the same 3,109 counties. Nothing is selected yet, so the Statistics panel shows only the all-counties rows.

The Select tool

Select tool

The Select tool is chosen in the map's rail. A new map starts on Pan.

A selection made on the map

Selected on the map

221 counties selected with a box on the map. The same counties are shaded in the table, highlighted in the scatterplot and histogram, and counted in the legend and the table footer.

The Selected group

Selected (221)

The Selected (n) group sits below the all-counties rows and repeats the same measures for just the selected counties.

A selection made in a chart

Selected in the scatterplot

Dragging a box at the right of the scatterplot replaced the map selection: 193 counties, with diabetes rates from 17.9 to 24.1 percent, now show on the map and in the histogram.

Cleared from the map

Cleared from the map

One click on empty map with the Select tool cleared the 193-county selection in every panel.

Cleared from a chart

Cleared

A press on empty space in the scatterplot cleared the selection in every panel.

How to select in each panel

• —Map. Choose the Select tool first. Click a county to select it, or drag a box to select every county inside. A plain click or box replaces the selection; hold Shift to add to it. A click on empty map, away from any county, clears the selection. The map's tool rail holds only Pan, Select and Identify, so there is no lasso or polygon selection.
• —Table. Click a row to select it, Ctrl-click to toggle one row, Shift-click to span from the row you last clicked, and Ctrl+Shift-click to add that span to the selection. The footer shows how many rows are selected.
• —Scatterplot. Click a point to select it, or drag a box to select every point inside. A press that hits nothing clears the selection. Ctrl-drag is kept for zooming and leaves the selection alone.
• —Histogram. Click a bar to select every county in that bin, or drag across bars to select every county in the bins the drag catches. The selected counties are drawn as a separate stack on top of each bar, as in the figures above.

Limits

NoteA plain gesture in a chart always replaces the selection. Charts cannot add to a selection the way the map can with Shift, so to build a selection from several pieces, make the pieces on the map or in the table.

NoteThere is no Clear selection button on the workspace. Clear by clicking on empty map with the Select tool, by pressing on empty space in a chart, or make a new selection, which replaces the old one.

Watch outSome panels do not take part. For example, the 3D scatter plot, the heatmap and the correlation matrix do not show or make a selection: in a second workspace, a box that selected 221 counties on the map left all three unchanged. Other chart types were not checked this way. The box plot, the cumulative distribution and the time plot select like the scatterplot (from Vesta's source, not run for this article), and the box plot turns selection off above 50,000 values.

NoteThis walk-through used a box on the map, a box in a scatterplot and a click on empty map, and a press on empty chart space. Not run for it, and described from the tooltips and notes in Vesta's source: a plain click on the map and Shift-adding on the map; clicking, Ctrl-clicking, Shift-clicking and Ctrl+Shift-clicking table rows; clicking a point in the scatterplot; Ctrl-drag in a chart; clicking or dragging across histogram bars; and the box plot, cumulative distribution and time plot.

Where next

• Build and style the maps you select on: Maps.
• Choose a chart for your question: Charts.
• Add, move and rename panels and workspaces: Workspace.