Aegis-GPU4.3 Choosing the right plot
Histograms, heat maps, map plots and cross-filtering.
Key points
A histogram counts how many values fall into each range. It shows the shape of a distribution, such as most trips being short.
What NVIDIA says (1)
“An hvPlot histogram of trip durations generated with the Divvy dataset In this instance, the vast majority of bike trips appear under 20 minutes.”
A heat map colors a grid by a value across two categories. It makes daily and weekly patterns easy to see.
What NVIDIA says (1)
“An hvPlot heat map showing trips by hour and day of week, per month Adding a widget for interactivity enables scrubbing through the months to search for patterns over a full year (Figure 2).”
A hexbin chart groups nearby points into hexagon cells and colors them by count. It keeps maps readable for many points.
What NVIDIA says (1)
“Figure 3 shows the hexbin chart that aggregates trip start and ending locations to a manageable amount, verifying that the data is accurate to the bike share system map.”
Cross-filtering links charts so a selection in one filters the others. It replaces writing many separate groupby and query calls.
What NVIDIA says (1)
“Instead of creating several individual group by and query operations, a cuxfilter dashboard can simply cross-link numerous charts to quickly find patterns or anomalies (Figure 5).”
Key terms
- cuxfilter: A RAPIDS library for GPU dashboards whose charts filter each other.
- Histogram: A chart of how often values fall into each range.
- Heat map: A grid colored by value, used to compare two categories at once.
- Cross-filtering: Linked charts where selecting data in one filters all the others.
Sample question
You want to see how bike trip durations are distributed. Which plot fits?
Show the answer
Answer: A histogram
A histogram counts how many values fall into each range. It shows the shape of a distribution, such as most trips being short.
What NVIDIA says (1)
“An hvPlot histogram of trip durations generated with the Divvy dataset In this instance, the vast majority of bike trips appear under 20 minutes.”
Practice 4.3 (4 questions) Full Descriptive Analysis and Visualization guide
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