In Spotfire 6.5.x the number of color bins is affected by the number of decimals selected for display, because the Color By feature needs unique bin names

Created
October 08, 2021 23:28

Date Posted: 2017-11-23
Product: TIBCO Spotfire®

Problem:

Solution:

Description:
When you Color by a column with a DataType of "Real", the number of decimals shown in the display affects the number of bins you will get, so the bin names must be unique.

Symptoms:
Color By Bins may not show the right number of bins if the naming of the color bins becomes identical (the bins with identical names are combined).

Showing two decimals (attachment 6.5_2decimals.png) will only give one bin (4.00).

Three decimals (attachment 6.5_3decimals.png) will give two bins (4.000 and 4.001).

Four decimals (attachment 6.5_4decimals.png) will give all three bins (4.0001, 4.0005, 4.0007).

Cause:
The names of the color bins must be unique. Display enough decimals to make the names of the color bins unique.

In Spotfire 7.0.x, "(2)" and "(3)" are added to the color bin names to ensure uniqueness, so showing just 2 decimals in Spotfire 7.0.x gives three colors (attachment 7.0_2decimals.png), and the bins will be called "4.00", "4.00 (2)", "4.00 (3)".