Quick Region Maps

So you need to map out your data but you either

• Don’t have database access
• Want to define your regions as per your client's request
•  NEED IT DONE YESTERDAY

If you have a postcode (or Zipcode) Don’t sweat, I have you covered with this Qlikview demo.  It’s ready to go in five minutes for UK readers and everyone else should be able to convert it in less than an hour.

I've loaded the Region Mapping report to my Qlikview Community profile here.  You will need to registered on the site to download/access it.

Building the Maps

Here’s my map of the UK, split into generic regions.  This is loosely based off the heatmaps article by QV Design from a few months back.

This isn't a heat map but I thought I could use something similar to quickly map out data based off postcodes.

As per the original, the map is made up of text boxes which display data relevant to that region.

I've included the UK maps that I have based the regions off in the report itself.

Loading your data

The data currently loaded is a count of records per region, with a single entry loaded per postcode currently the map shows a count of postcode areas per region.  I’ve used the match function in this to identify multiple values.

Tip: for more details on using match check out this previous article.

First Load your data into the QV report, Everything in this report is set via variables. So just change “Postcode Field” & “Field to Count” to the correct field names in your data and that’s it. You have now mapped your data into regions.

If you’re not happy with the postcodes assigned to each area, these can also be changed on the input box.

Tip: When adding a postcode area, remember to remove it from the previous region.

Changing the Regions

So this is great if you need exactly what I've done so far, but you're not in the UK or you need to amend the regions I've defined for something more specific.

First update the Regions Map Text box to a relevant map you want to use (Properties> General> Background> Image) – then drag it over to the region map.

You then need to unlock the text boxes and re-arrange their size and location. (Properties> Layout> Options > “Allow Move/Size”)

Once this is done, rename the labels for each region and the labels on the input box for each variable.

Tip: For more uses of Variables see this article.

Postcodes in the UK use the first 2 characters to define large areas of the country, for other countries you may need to amend the formula.  Once this is done, load up each unique postcode/zipcode prefix into the correct region.  In the report, I have split out postcodes for large areas into separate lines.

Next Steps

As it stands, this report is a barebones for you to build on.  My current thoughts on putting this into the real world would be

1. Adding a trigger to each region so that data can be selected
2. Adding Heat map colours to the map based off data
3. Adding sub region maps that break down the data further
4. Adding text colours to the labels to show data that is currently selectes

Links

1. Region Mapping Report (Qlikview Community)
2. Original Article on QV Design
3. Match Statements
4. Cooking with Variables

Edit: after a few people have raised issues with access I have also made my Qlikview docs available on Google Drive

5. Region Mapping Report (Google Drive)