Table (information) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A table is a means of arranging data

Data

The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...

in rows and columns.

Production (tons)	% of goal
North 40	87	102%
South 40	93	110%

The use of tables is pervasive throughout all communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

, research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

and data analysis

Data analysis

Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision making...

. Tables appear in print media, handwritten notes, computer software, architectural ornamentation, traffic signs and many other places. The precise conventions and terminology for describing tables varies depending on the context. Further, tables differ significantly in variety, structure, flexibility, notation, representation and use. In books and technical articles, tables are typically presented apart from the main text in numbered and captioned floating block

Floating block

A floating block in writing and publishing is any graphic, text, table, or other representation that is unaligned from the main flow of text. Use of floating blocks to present pictures and tables is a typical feature of academic writing and technical writing, including scientific and articles and...

Basic description

A table consists of an ordered arrangement of rows and columns. This is a simplified description of the most basic kind of table. Certain considerations follow from this simplified description:

the term row has several common synonyms (e.g., record
Row (database)
In the context of a relational database, a row—also called a record or tuple—represents a single, implicitly structured data item in a table. In simple terms, a database table can be thought of as consisting of rows and columns or fields...

, k-tuple
Tuple
In mathematics and computer science, a tuple is an ordered list of elements. In set theory, an n-tuple is a sequence of n elements, where n is a positive integer. There is also one 0-tuple, an empty sequence. An n-tuple is defined inductively using the construction of an ordered pair...

, n-tuple, vector);
the term column has several common synonyms (e.g., field, parameter, property, attribute);
a column is usually identified by a name;
a column name can consist of a word, phrase or a numerical index;
the intersection of a row and a column is a cell
Table cell
A table cell is one grouping within a table. Cells are grouped horizontally and vertically . Usually information on the top header of a table and side header will "meet" in the middle at a particular cell with information regarding the two headers it is collinear with.-Kinds of cells in HTML:A...

.

The elements of a table may be grouped, segmented, or arranged in many different ways, and even nested recursively

Recursion

Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when the surfaces of two mirrors are exactly parallel with each other the nested images that occur are a form of infinite recursion. The term has a variety of meanings specific to a variety of disciplines ranging from...

. Additionally, a table may include metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

, annotations, header

Header (information technology)

In information technology, header refers to supplemental data placed at the beginning of a block of data being stored or transmitted. In data transmission, the data following the header are sometimes called the payload or body....

, footer or other ancillary features.

Simple table

The following illustrates a simple table with three columns and six rows. The first row is not counted, because it is only used to display the column names. This is traditionally called a "header row".

Age table
First name	Last name	Age
Shiva	Naidu	24
Naresh	Koyyada	25
Goutham	Pulipati	22
Upendar	sriram	22
Sharath	Dont Know	22
Sai	Pembarthi	22

Multi-dimensional table

The concept of dimension is also a part of basic terminology. Any "simple" table can be represented as a "multi-dimensional"
table by normalizing

Database normalization

In the design of a relational database management system , the process of organizing data to minimize redundancy is called normalization. The goal of database normalization is to decompose relations with anomalies in order to produce smaller, well-structured relations...

the data values into ordered hierarchies. A common example of such a table is a multiplication table

Multiplication table

In mathematics, a multiplication table is a mathematical table used to define a multiplication operation for an algebraic system....

style="white-space:nowrap"| Multiplication table
×	1	2	3
1	1	2	3
2	2	4	6
3	3	6	9

NOTE: Multidimensional tables, 2-dimensional as in the example, are created under the condition the coordinates or combination of the basic headers (margins) give a unique value attached. This is an injective relation

Injective function

In mathematics, an injective function is a function that preserves distinctness: it never maps distinct elements of its domain to the same element of its codomain. In other words, every element of the function's codomain is mapped to by at most one element of its domain...

: each combination of the values of the headers row (row 0, for lack of a better term) and the headers column (column O for lack of a better term) is related to a unique value represented on the table:

column 1 and row 1 will only correspond to the value 1 (and no other)
column 1 and row 2 will only correspond to the value 2 (and no other), etc.

If the said condition is not present, it is required to insert extra columns or rows which increases the size of table with plenty of empty cells.

To illustrate how a simple table can be transformed into a multi-dimensional table, consider the following transformation of the Age table.

Modified Age Table (names only)
+	1	2	3
Nancy	Nancy Davolio	Nancy Klondike	Nancy Obesanjo
Justin	Justin Saunders	Justin Timberland	Justin Daviolio

This is structurally identical to the multiplication table, except it uses concatenation

Concatenation

In computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end-to-end. For example, the strings "snow" and "ball" may be concatenated to give "snowball"...

instead of multiplication

Multiplication

Multiplication is the mathematical operation of scaling one number by another. It is one of the four basic operations in elementary arithmetic ....

as the operator; and first name and last name instead of integers as the operands.

Wide and Narrow Tables

Tables can be described as wide or narrow in format. Wide format has a separate column for each data variable, a Narrow format will have one column for all the variable values and another column for the context of that value. See Wide and Narrow Data

Wide and narrow data

Wide and narrow are terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data.- Wide :Wide, or unstacked data is presented with each different data variable in a separate column.- Narrow :...

Generic representation

As a communication tool, a table allows a form of generalization

Generalization

A generalization of a concept is an extension of the concept to less-specific criteria. It is a foundational element of logic and human reasoning. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it...

of information from an unlimited number of different social or scientific contexts. It provides a familiar way to convey information that might otherwise not be obvious or readily understood.

For example, in the following diagram, two alternate representations of the same information are presented side by side. On the left is the NFPA 704 standard "fire diamond" with example values indicated and on the right is a simple table displaying the same values, along with additional information. Both representations convey essentially the same information, but the tabular representation is arguably more comprehensible to someone who is not familiar with the NFPA 704 standard. The tabular representation may not, however, be ideal for every circumstance (for example because of space limitations, or safety reasons).

Fire diamond

Standard Representation

Tabular Representation

EWLINE

style="white-space:nowrap"| Risk levels of hazardous materials in this facility
Health Risk	Flammability	Reactivity	Special
Level 3	Level 2	Level 1

Specific uses

There are several specific situations in which tables are routinely used as a matter of custom or formal convention.

Information technology

Tables are both supported by software applications and used in software development.

Software applications

Modern software applications give users the ability to generate, format, and edit tables and tabular data for a wide variety of uses, for example:

word processing
Word processing
Word processing is the creation of documents using a word processor. It can also refer to advanced shorthand techniques, sometimes used in specialized contexts with a specially modified typewriter.-External links:...

applications;
spreadsheet
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...

applications;
presentation software;
tables specified in HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

or another markup language
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...

Software development

Tables have uses in software development for both high-level specification and low-level implementation.
Usage in software specification can encompass ad hoc inclusion of simple decision table

Decision table

Decision tables are a precise yet compact way to model complicated logic.Decision tables, like flowcharts and if-then-else and switch-case statements, associate conditions with actions to perform, but in many cases do so in a more elegant way....

s in textual documents through to the use of tabular specification methodologies, examples of which include SCR and Statestep.
Proponents of tabular techniques, among whom David Parnas

David Parnas

David Lorge Parnas is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering, who developed the concept of information hiding in modular programming, which is an important element of object-oriented programming today. He is also noted for his advocacy of precise documentation.- Biography :Parnas earned...

is prominent, emphasize their understandability, as well as the quality and cost advantages of a format allowing systematic inspection, while corresponding shortcomings experienced with a graphical notation were cited in motivating the development of at least two tabular approaches.

At a programming level, software may be implemented using constructs generally represented or understood as tabular, whether to store data (perhaps to memoize

Memoization

In computing, memoization is an optimization technique used primarily to speed up computer programs by having function calls avoid repeating the calculation of results for previously processed inputs...

earlier results), for example, in arrays or hash table

Hash table

In computer science, a hash table or hash map is a data structure that uses a hash function to map identifying values, known as keys , to their associated values . Thus, a hash table implements an associative array...

s, or control table

Control table

Control tables are tables that control the program flow or play a major part in program control. There are no rigid rules concerning the structure or content of a control table - its only qualifying attribute is its ability to direct program flow in some way through its 'execution' by an associated...

s determining the flow of program execution in response to various events or inputs.

Historical relationship to furniture

In medieval counting house

Counting house

A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...

s, the tables

Table (furniture)

A table is a form of furniture with a flat and satisfactory horizontal upper surface used to support objects of interest, for storage, show, and/or manipulation...

were covered with a piece of checkered

Check (fabric)

A check is a pattern consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical lines forming squares.-Etymology:...

cloth, to count money. Exchequer
Exchequer
The Exchequer is a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. The historical Exchequer developed judicial roles...

is an archaic term for the English institution which accounted for money owed to the monarch

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

. Thus the checkerboard

Checkerboard

A checkerboard or chequerboard is a board of chequered pattern on which English draughts is played. It is an 8×8 board and the 64 squares are of alternating dark and light color, often red and black....

tables of stacks of coins are a concrete realization of this information

Information

Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...