Once you create a query you can use charts or maps to visualize that data in notebooks, dashboards, and alerts (alerts only support line charts). You can also adjust the Y axis for a chart.
Visualization types
This page lists and describes Cloud Observability’s visualization types.
Area chart
Available for metrics and logs in dashboards and notebooks.
Displays a shaded area for the value. Area charts are helpful when you’re charting more than one metric.
Bar chart
Available for metrics and logs in dashboards and notebooks.
Displays a bar for the value at a given time point. Bar charts are good for displaying discrete values, like the number of requests.
Big number
Available for metrics in dashboards and notebooks.
Displays an aggregated value over time as a number. Big number charts are useful when you only need to know the current value of a metric and don’t expect to investigate any changes. When creating a big number chart, note the following:
- Click under the number to add a subtitle.
- Because a big number chart displays a single value, you can’t group by an attribute. If you use more than one metric for your chart, you need to combine them using a formula.
Dependency map
Available for spans in dashboards and notebooks. Multiple queries aren’t supported.
Displays a map showing services (and optionally operations) dependent on the queried data. You can query on services, operations, and other attributes.
Learn more about dependency maps.
Heatmap
Available for span latency and distribution-type metrics in dashboards and notebooks. Multiple queries aren’t supported.
Heatmaps allow you to see the distribution of values over time. Unlike a line chart, you can see the number of data points for a particular value, at a particular point in time. Color saturation in the map represents the amount of data points - the darker the color, the more data points for that value, at the point in time.
For example, in the following heatmap, you can see that there are 300 points with a value between 500ms and 600ms around 9:10 am. 
But starting at around 9:18 am, the distribution of data points shifts. There are now a number of points in the higher range of latency and fewer data points at the lower range (many of the dark blue cells changed to a lighter blue). The legend on the right shows the range of color values. 
Line chart
Available for all data types.
Displays a line that connects the charted values.
Ordered list
Available for all data types. Multiple queries and formulas are not supported.
The ordered list chart displays the results of your query in descending/ascending order of value using a bar graph. The highest value is shaded to 100% and subsequent values are shaded to a relative percent. Use the Sort by dropdown to change the sort order. Click the time series icon to copy a row’s query to a notebook where you can view span samples and start your investigation. 
Scatter plot
Available for spans_sample queries in dashboards and notebooks. Scatter plots don’t support multiple queries.
Scatter plots display spans_sample results, visualizing spans and the traces they come from.
In the example below, the query returns spans from traces where at least one span has operation == GET.
The scatter plot visualizes the results:
- Green points are spans without errors.
- Red triangles are spans with errors.
Visit Use scatter plots and UQL reference to learn more about spans_sample queries and scatter plots.
Table
Available for all data types. Multiple queries and formulas are not supported.
The table visualization shows your data in a tabular format, similar to the table shown below each chart in notebooks and the expanded chart view in dashboards. Tables are useful when your query includes a group-by. Use the Sort by dropdowns to change the attribute to sort by or to change the sort order. Click the time series icon to copy a row’s query to a notebook where you can view span samples and start your investigation.
Adjust the Y axis scale
By default, the Y axis for charts uses a linear scale. You can instead use logarithmic (log) or symlog scales. You can also set the min and max values for the Y axis.
Expand the advanced options section to change the scale.
- Linear: Value difference between points on the axis are the same.
- Log: Allows you to chose an exponential scale for the points on the axis (base 10 by default).
- Symlog: Allows the chart to display negative values.
See also
Updated Nov 29, 2023