Scatterplot visualization

Latest Dynatrace
How-to guide
2-min read
Published Oct 24, 2025

When to use a scatterplot visualization

Use the scatterplot visualization when you want to:

Identify relationships, correlations, or patterns between two continuous variables.

For example, to see if there’s a correlation between the number of users on your platform and the response time of your application.
Visualize the distribution of data points.

For example, to observe how requests are distributed across different response time ranges.
Detect outliers or anomalies in your data.

For example, to identify requests with unusually high durations compared to others.

Examples

Example 1

The scatterplot visualization above is based on the following query.

timeseries { cpu.usage = avg(dt.host.cpu.usage, scalar: true), memory.usage = avg(dt.host.memory.usage, scalar: true) }, union: TRUE, by: { dt.entity.host }
| fieldsAdd dt.entity.host.name = entityName(dt.entity.host)
| fields dt.entity.host, dt.entity.host.name, cpu.usage, memory.usage
| limit 1000

Example 2

The scatterplot visualization above is based on the following query.

timeseries {service.response.time = avg(dt.service.request.response_time, scalar: true), service.response.count = sum(dt.service.request.count, scalar: true)}, union: TRUE, by: { dt.entity.service }
| fieldsAdd dt.entity.service.name = entityName(dt.entity.service)
| fields dt.entity.service.name, dt.entity.service, service.response.count, service.response.time
| limit 1000

Title

Use the title field at the top of the options panel (initially Untitled tile or Untitled section) to add a title to your dashboard tile or notebook section.

You can use emojis such as 😃 and 🌍 and ❤️.
You can use variables.

Example:

Define variables called Status and Emoji in your dashboard.
Set the title to Current $Emoji status is $Status.
Set Status to Good.
Set Emoji to 🌍.

The title will be displayed as Current 🌍 status is Good.

Visualization

If you aren't sure that you chose the right visualization, use the visualization selector to try different visualizations.

To learn about options quickly and decide what works best for you, turn options on and off and see the effect immediately on your chart. For example, does it look best with a label or without? Turn that option on and off and see for yourself.

Data mapping

The data mapping section shows how a column of your result is mapped to the visualization.

Expand the Data mapping section of your visualization settings to see how data in your result is mapped to your visualization, and to adjust those settings if needed.

Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*). Example:
Data types are displayed next to field names in dropdowns and mapped fields.
Units are displayed when there’s only one assigned.
Result fields are grouped into Suitable and Unsuitable. Fields are marked as unsuitable if they cannot be used to display data in the visualization. Example:
Automatic application of data mapping default settings:

Dynatrace version 1.319+
- Already existing tiles and sections are considered to be user-defined. Their data mapping configurations aren't updated automatically.
- Newly created tiles and sections apply a data mapping setting by default. If you don't modify these settings manually, these settings might change if a new execution of the tile/section modifies the results and there are fields missing or new fields that better suit the data mapping.

Visualization-specific data mapping settings

The scatterplot data mapping section includes:

X-axis: Select the value to use for the X-axis of your scatterplot. Suitable values are Timeframe, Numerical (Double and Long), Categorical (String and Boolean).
Y-axis: Select the value to use for the Y-axis of your scatterplot. Suitable values are Numerical (Double and Long), Categorical (String and Boolean).
Names: The elements displayed, for example, in the legend and series names. Suitable fields are Categorical (String and Boolean), Numerical (Double and Long), or Field name.

Possible X/Y combinations are:

X-axis	Y-axis
Timeframe	Array
Numerical	Numerical
Numerical	Categorical
Categorical	Categorical
Categorical	Numerical

Notes:

Timeframe is only supported in the X-axis and is the combination of Timestamp + Duration.
Timestamp is considered a numerical type.

X-axis

These settings determine the appearance of your scatterplot's X-axis.

Show label: turn it on to define a label for the X-axis.
Reverse: turn it on to reverse the direction of the X-axis.
Position: select where you want to display the X-axis in relation to your scatterplot.
Min value:
- Auto selects a suitable minimum based on data (0 or min value)
- Min value sets to the minimum value in the data
- Custom lets you set a manual minimum value
Max value:
- Auto selects a suitable maximum based on data (0 or max value)
- Max value sets to the maximum value in the data
- Custom lets you set a manual maximum value
Tick label layout: select whether to display the X-axis values horizontally or vertically.

Y-axis

These settings determine the appearance of your scatterplot's Y-axis.

Show label: turn it on to define a label for the Y-axis.
Reverse: turn it on to reverse the direction of the Y-axis.
Position: select where you want to display the Y-axis in relation to your scatterplot.
Min value:
- Auto selects a suitable minimum based on data (0 or min value)
- Min value sets to the minimum value in the data
- Custom lets you set a manual minimum value
Max value:
- Auto selects a suitable maximum based on data (0 or max value)
- Max value sets to the maximum value in the data
- Custom lets you set a manual maximum value

Show legend: To display a scatterplot legend, turn on Show legend and select the legend Position:
- Auto: Selects an appropriate location based on the scatterplot size and the available space.
- Bottom: Displays a legend under the scatterplot.
- Right: Displays a legend to the right of the scatterplot.
Text truncation: Determines how to truncate text when the full text can't be displayed.
- A…: Trim from the right end of the text (when the right end is less important)
- A…B: Trim from the middle of the text (when the middle is less important)
- …B: Trim from the left end of the text (when the left end is less important)

Color

These settings determine how color is used in your scatterplot.

Color palette: Displays colors from the selected color palette.
Custom: Displays colors defined by you.

For each custom color you want to add
1. Select Color.
2. Enter a value, operator, and color to use for that value and operator.

Units and formats

To override the default units and formats in a dashboard or notebook visualization

Select to edit the visualization tile.
Select the Visual tab.
Select Units and formats.
Select Override.
Select Override
In the dropdown list, select the item for which you want to add a unit override.
This is a numeric column of the underlying DQL result, so it varies according to the query. For example:
A fetch events query returns events. The dropdown list here lets you select a numeric field (such as transfer_size) from the results.
A timeseries avg(dt.host.cpu.usage) query returns a single timeseries for avg(dt.host.cpu.usage). That timeseries is then the only selectable option in the list.
Define the override.
- Default unit: The base unit in which the values were captured. It's None if it was not included in the DQL result, or its automatically defined by the unit passed from the DQL result. This field doesn't lead to any conversion.
- Displayed unit: Once you define a default unit, you can use Displayed unit for conversion. For example, if the DQL result defined your numeric value in the result as Bytes, Displayed unit now offers a suitable list of byte conversions such as Kilobyte and Megabyte. Unlike the Default unit, the Displayed unit is always a numeric conversion.
- Decimals displays the default number of decimals (degree of precision) to display. To see it in action, change the Decimals selection and observe the change in the visualization.
- Suffix displays the suffix to display after the unit. To see it in action, enter a string and observe the change in the visualization. When you don't find the unit you're looking for, you can use Suffix to display the desired unit.
Turn on Abbreviate large numbers if you want to display large figures in abbreviated form. For example, 1053 becomes 1.1K.

To reset to defaults (discard override settings for the selected item), select the trash can next to the item.

This example uses a line chart, but the options apply to other visualizations.

In Dashboards, create a dashboard.
Select and, in the Snippets section of the menu, select Metrics > Chart average CPU across all hosts.
In the section edit panel, select the Visual tab and select Line.
Select Units and formats.
Select Override.
In the dropdown list, select the metric for which you want to add an override. There's only one metric to select in this example.
Define the override for the displayed metric. You can observe your changes in the Y-axis of the chart.
- Default unit displays Percent (%), which is the default unit for the selected metric. Try a different setting, such as One to instead display the result as a fraction of 1.
- Displayed unit displays Auto. You can change it to a different unit, such as One to instead display the result as a fraction of 1.
  
  Only linear and static conversions are supported. For example, you cannot convert Degree Celsius(°C) into Degree Fahrenheit(°F), or convert Usd(US$) into Eur(€).
- Decimals displays the default number of decimal points (degree of precision) to display. To see it in action, change the Decimals selection and observe the change in the visualization.
  
  For example, change this:
  
  To this:
- Suffix displays the optional suffix to display after the unit. To see it in action, enter a string and observe the change in the visualization.