Loading data
TreeMap has the possibility of loading data in various formats and from multiple data sources. The most common ways of importing your own data is to use tab-delimited or comma-separated files, as well as Excel workbooks. Connectivity to common relational databases and some on-line data providers is also provided.
To load data files, either use the File->Open... menu entry, drag and drop a file with a known file extension onto the TreeMap application frame, or double-click the file if its extension is registered to TreeMap.
File-based data sources
Macrofocus TreeMap (*.mtm)
This is the native format used by TreeMap. It is used to store both the actual data as well as all the settings made using the TreeMap application. For detailed technical specification of the data format, please contact us.
Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt;*.tsv;*.tab)
Loading data from tab-delimited text files should be pretty straightforward. TreeMap expect the first line to contain the name of each column, using the tab character to separate each column. The second line can optionally contain information about the type of values to be expected for each column. Possible types are "String" for any type of textual information, "Integer" for numbers without a fractional or decimal component, "Float" and "Double" for single and double precisions floating-point numbers, and "Color" to provide coloring information. Each subsequent lines should contain the respective values for each of the column. If you use international characters, then UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoding will be automatically recognized by TreeMap.
By default, TreeMap automatically assign the first categorical variable to the label, the second categorical variable (if available) to the grouping, the first numerical variable to the size, and the second numerical variable (if available) to the color.
As an example, you can download the Forbes Global 2000 dataset in this format.
CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)
Comma separated values (CSV) files are processed similarly to tab-delimited files, except that they use comma (or semicolon) to separate each column.
As an example, you can download the Forbes Global 2000 dataset in this format.
Microsoft Excel Workbook (*.xls;*.xlsx)
TreeMap can read files produced by Microsoft Excel, including in the recent Office Open XML format, even without having Excel installed on the local computer. The first row is expected to contain the name of each column. When the workbook contains multiple sheets, the first one is automatically loaded by TreeMap.
As an example, you can download the Forbes Global 2000 dataset in this format.
HCIL TM3 (*.tm3)
For backward compatibility, files can be loaded in the data format used by the University of Maryland Treemap. Description of the actual data format is provided on the HCIL website.
TreeML (*.xml)
For backward compatibility, files can be loaded in the TreeML file format. Description of the actual data format is provided on the HCIL website.
Microsoft Access (*.mdb;*.accdb)
Access database tables can directly be loaded into TreeMap. However, this is only supported on the Windows platform and require Microsoft Access or the Microsoft Access Database Engine to be installed.
Directory-based data source
As a treemap representation is an excellent visualization for finding which files and directories take space on a computer hard disk, TreeMap provided the possibility of scanning the directory structure of your file system by specifying the location of the root directory.
Database connectivity
TreeMap can directly import data from popular relational database servers installed on the local computer or on a remote machine. Currently supported are:
- MySQL
- Oracle
- Microsoft SQL Server
- PostgreSQL
- IBM DB2
- SAP MaxDB
- PostGIS
Microsoft Access is also supported, but as a file-based data source.
To start importing data from a database, go to File->Open Database... This will open a dialog to define the
required parameters:
On-line data sources
Stock quotes data from Yahoo Finance can directly be access through the File->Open Online Data menu item, as well as all the example datasets provided on our website.