Table and matrix
When the records themselves are the answer.
Sometimes the answer is the rows.
Table
A flat list of records with columns you choose. Right when the reader needs to find a specific item, check a value, or export a list — things no chart does well.
Matrix
A cross-tab: categories down the side, categories across the top, a measure in the cells. Revenue by region and by quarter, in one grid.
A matrix can expand and collapse levels, and can show subtotals. It is the densest visual available and, used well, the most informative — a well-built matrix often replaces four charts.
Making them readable
- Format the numbers. A column of raw floats is unreadable; set decimals, separators and currency on the column so every visual inherits it.
- Use conditional formatting sparingly. Colour on the one column that matters draws the eye. Colour on every column draws it nowhere.
- Do not use a table as a dump. Forty columns is a database export, not a visual. Show what is needed and let people export the rest.