What Makes a Trellis View Unique

The trellis view, also referred to as a trellis graph, is the same as a pivot table—with one major exception: the data cells within the trellis contain graphs. Whereas a stand-alone graph type such as a single bar graph or a single scatter graph works on its own, the trellis graph works only by displaying a grid of nested graphs, known as inner graphs. So a bar-graph trellis view is actually comprised of multiple bar graphs.

In a general sense within the field of business analytics, a visualization is a visual representation of data, displayed in graphs, gauges, maps, and so on. In the trellis editor, within the Layout pane, there is a drop target called Visualizations; this is where you drag the columns for the inner graphs that will comprise the trellis you are building.

The visualizations that make up a simple trellis view are all graphs, and they can be many types of the existing stand-alone graphs described in "Graph Types". The visualizations that make up an advanced trellis are always microcharts, of the graph subtypes Spark Line, Spark Bar, or Spark Area. Ideally, the microcharts within an advanced trellis are placed alongside numbers (representing the same measure). For more information, see "What Are Microcharts".