What is a table?
A table is a structured collection of data organnized in columns and rows. Each table has a unique name and contains a set of data displayed in one or more columns, each defined with a specific type (Text, Number, Date, etc.). Ideally, each table should have a column which defines the uniqueness of the table. You can think of the table as the schema and the rows as the instances of the schema. For example, if there is a site that has 4 buildings, these 4 buildings will be represented as 4 different rows within the Buildings table.
How does it differ from a spreadsheet?
- Data Integrity: tables enforce data integrity through data types and validation rules (unique, non-blank). Spreadsheets provide limited data integrity, primarily through manual checks and basic validation. Tables reduce redundancy and encourage the re-use of existing data.
- Relationships: users can draw relationships of different types (one to one, one to many) between tables. Spreadsheets provide one-to-one relationships via lookup functions but do not create true relationships between data sets.
- User Interface: Tables are designed in a way to provide a spreadsheet-like experience for data manipulation
- Integrations: Users can sync data with one-click integrations from different platforms into tables. Spreadsheets do provide the ability to connect with external systems, however, the connection and parsing of data should be set up by users for every new system.
- Data accessibilty: Using permissions, users can have access to different parts of data in tables. Offline spreadsheets need to be exchanged via email.
What is a view?
Tables host the data which can be displayed in different ways (filtered, coloured, grouped, etc.). The different displays of the data can be saved in views.