Textual and tabular presentation

Data can be presented in three forms: textual (in words), tabular (in a table) and diagrammatic (in diagrams and graphs).

Textual presentation puts the data inside the sentences of a paragraph: 'Of the 50 workers on strike, 30 were women.' It suits a small amount of data. But the reader must read the whole text to find the figures, and comparing them is hard.

Tabular presentation arranges data in rows (horizontal) and columns (vertical). Where a row and a column cross is a cell. A table with 4 rows and 3 columns, for example, has 4 × 3 = 12 cells. Tables make large amounts of data easy to read and compare.

The data in a table can be classified in four ways, just as in the last chapter:

• Qualitative: by attributes, such as sex or location (rural or urban).
• Quantitative: by measurable characteristics, such as age groups or income groups.
• Temporal: by time, such as India's population census by census.
• Spatial: by place, such as India's exports to different countries.

Tables also make it easy to work out missing figures. If the total and all the other parts are given, the missing part is simply the total minus the others; its share in per cent is that part ÷ total × 100.