2D Histograms in Julia

2D Histograms or Density Heatmaps

A 2D histogram, also known as a density heatmap, is the 2-dimensional generalization of a histogram which resembles a heatmap but is computed by grouping a set of points specified by their x and y coordinates into bins, and applying an aggregation function such as count or sum (if z is provided) to compute the color of the tile representing the bin. This kind of visualization (and the related 2D histogram contour, or density contour) is often used to manage over-plotting, or situations where showing large data sets as scatter plots would result in points overlapping each other and hiding patterns.

Density Heatmaps

You can make a density heatmap using the histogram2d trace type and setting xbingroup="x" and ybingroup="y"

using PlotlyJS, CSV, DataFrames
df = dataset(DataFrame, "tips")
plot(df, x=:total_bill, y=:tip, xbingroyp="x", ybingroup="y", kind="histogram2d")

The number of bins can be controlled with nbinsx and nbinsy and the color scale with colorscale.

using PlotlyJS, CSV, DataFrames
df = dataset(DataFrame, "tips")
plot(
    df, x=:total_bill, y=:tip, xbingroyp="x", ybingroup="y", kind="histogram2d",
    nbinsx=20, nbinsy=20, colorscale="Viridis"
)

Density heatmaps can also be faceted:

using PlotlyJS, CSV, DataFrames
df = dataset(DataFrame, "tips")

plot(
    df, x=:total_bill, y=:tip, xbingroyp="x", ybingroup="y", kind="histogram2d",
    facet_row=:sex, facet_col=:smoker
)

2D Histogram of a Bivariate Normal Distribution

using PlotlyJS, Random
Random.seed!(41)
plot(histogram2d(x=randn(500), y=randn(500) .+ 1))

2D Histogram Overlaid with a Scatter Chart

using PlotlyJS, Random

x0 = randn(100) ./ 5. .+ 0.5  # 5. enforces float division
y0 = randn(100) ./ 5. .+ 0.5
x1 = rand(50)
y1 = rand(50) .+ 1.0

x = [x0; x1]
y = [y0; y1]

plot(
    [
        scatter(
            x=x0, y=y0, mode="markers",
            marker=attr(symbol="x", opacity=0.7, color="white", size=8, line_width=1)
        ),
        scatter(
            x=x1, y=y1, mode="markers",
            marker=attr(symbol="circle", opacity=0.7, color="white", size=8, line_width=1)
        ),
        histogram2d(x=x, y=y, colorscale="YlGnBu", zmax=10, nbinsx=14, nbinsy=14, zauto=false)
    ],
    Layout(
        xaxis=attr(ticks="", showgrid=false, zeroline=false, nticks=20),
        yaxis=attr(ticks="", showgrid=false, zeroline=false, nticks=20),
        autosize=false,
        height=550,
        width=550,
        hovermode="closest",
        showlegend=false,
    )
)

Reference

See https://plotly.com/julia/reference/histogram2d/ for more information and chart attribute options!