Usage

Basics

The map_layer_name parameter lets you associate a dimension with a TopoJSON map layer. This lets users create map charts by charting the values in the dimension on the map layer. For example, to be able to chart data by US state, you could associate a dimension called “State” to the built-in map layer us_states. You could also chart data in a dimension called “Neighborhood” to a custom map of New York City neighborhoods.

If you are using a custom TopoJSON map, you must specify the map layer in the LookML model using the map_layer parameter.

Dimensions of type: zipcode automatically receive a map_layer_name of us_zipcode_tabulation_areas.

Built-in map layers

Looker includes the following built-in map layers:

• countries — Accepts full country names, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 three-letter country codes, and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes. If your data includes ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes, using map_layer_name with the countries map is recommended to ensure that Looker interprets your data as country codes and not as state codes.

• uk_postcode_areas — Accepts UK postcode areas (for example, L for Liverpool, RH for Redhill, or EH for Edinburgh).

• us_states — Accepts full state names and two-letter state abbreviations.

• us_counties_fips — Works on string fields that are five-character FIPS county codes for a US county. This layer works only on the interactive map.

• us_zipcode_tabulation_areas — Works on string fields that are five-character US zip codes. Dimensions of type: zipcode automatically use the us_zipcode_tabulation_areas map layer.

  Zip code regions are based on the 2010 zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs), so this map layer does not include many zip codes, such as those assigned to P.O. boxes, that do not map directly to regions.

Example