Question

How can you use Power BI’s Shape Map visual to visualize custom geo-spatial regions (e.g., custom zip codes or postal regions)?

What steps are involved in using Power BI’s Shape Map visual to display custom geographic regions such as unique zip codes or postal areas?

Answer 1

Use Power BI's Shape Map to Visualize and Show Custom Geographic Regions, Including Custom Zip Codes or Customs Post Areas:

First, you have the Custom Map Preparation. For starters, TopoJSON is the format used for a custom map file. If your data is stored in another format, such as GeoJSON, and needs to be converted, just check the web for an online converter for TopoJSON. It must also include the geographical boundaries that are to be represented, such as zip codes or postal areas.

Upload Shape Map in Power BI

In the Power BI Desktop, you will need to go to the "Visualizations" pane and then insert the Shape Map into the report. After that, in the "Format" pane under the "Shape" section, add Map to upload your custom TopoJSON file. With this, you define the boundaries of the areas that you would like visualized.

Bind Your Data to the Map

To do this:

1. Add a column of data, such as zip codes, that matches the location names or codes in your TopoJSON file to the "Location" field of the Shape Map visual.
2. In the " Values " field, place the metric you want to visualize data values by, such as sales or population.
3. Note that when naming your data, you need to match the region identifiers located in the TopoJSON exactly.

Format Your Map and Customize It

In the " Format " pane, customize your Map with color, legends, etc., using color scales to signify the different values from region to region and make changes to improve readability.

Once you have completed all these tasks, you can effectively use Power BI's Shape Map to represent custom geography and analyze data on it.