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Organising and Analysing Information: Tables

A table is a grid used to format data so that it is more useful. Tables are made of rows (across) and columns (down). Think of the common "multiplication table"

This table has 6 rows and 4 columns. Each of the 24 rectangles is called a table cell. If you want to know what 2x4 is you look down the column "2" and across the row "4" and the cell where they intersect (meet) contains your answer.

Learn the jargon:

• Table row: the line of information going across
• Table column: the line of information going down
• Table cell: the single piece of information

Tables don't have to be numeric information. You will see tables in lots of places. Here are some. Can you think of others?

• Distance tables showing the distance between one town and another.
• Rosters
• Allocating tasks or resources
• Timetables
• Television schedules
• Mail-merges (more on that later)

Tables don't have to have information in every cell. Here is a table to see how popular different foods are. We are placing a 1 in the column of the foods that our tasters like, and adding them up in the Total row.

Our table tells us that ice-cream (5 out of 6) is the most popular food but only 2 people like banana. That could tell us what sort of good to buy for Mary's birthday party.

Imagine this information presented another way...

Mary likes cheese and ice-cream but not banana.
John likes banana and ice-cream but not cheese.
Chris only likes banana.
Jane doesn't like banana but does like cheese and ice-cream.
Tom like ice-cream but not banana and not cheese.
Andy likes cheese and ice-cream, but not banana.

Which is easiest to understand and interpret?

Create your own tables.

You can draw a grid on paper or use a computer program and follow these steps.

1. Think of a problem
2. Decide what information you need to answer your problem
3. See if you can design rows and columns in a table to analyse that information and what it can tell you.
4. If it doesn't fit, you might need more information, or have too much information, or your problem might be more suited to another method of analysis.