Data Grid

A data grid is a report's row-and-column view that shows exact values rather than a visual shape; the place for reading numbers, sorting and comparing row by row.

A data grid and a chart are two languages of one dataset: a chart is good for seeing pattern and trend, a grid for when you want an exact number and a ranking. A grid wins where the items are many and sortable — a hundred pages, a hundred sources — and you want to find the highest or lowest fast. But a grid has traps too: in a fifty-row table the eye reads numbers, not patterns, so a grid is excellent for 'which is bigger' and poor for 'which way is the trend heading'. Good columns and correct sorting turn a grid from a wall of numbers into a decision tool; a grid without sorting and without a rate column (raw counts only) loses half its value. A grid is often the starting point of drill-down: from a row you go to its detail.