Table Data vs Presentation 1

[SkipVought]

Some thoughts on tables containing such data as dates.

I often see working tables (as opposed to presentations of data) that contain non-normalized data. A prime example might have headings that look something like this...

Account   Jan   Feb   Mar   Apr   May   Jun   Jul   Aug   Sep   Oct   Nov   Dec   Total

According to good database theory, this is not an efficient table. It might be the way you want to show the data to your boss, though. This kind of table is difficult to analyze and maintain.

This data ought to be stored and manipulated in the following form that is normalized...

Date   Account   Amount

This data can be analyzed easily and reported in the first format via a pivot table. It contains the level of detail that is necessary to provide a variety of answers from the ground level to the 50,000 ft level; the first example is a data summary.

Using a Normalized Table and formatting reports via a Pivot Table to summarize the data and Group and Outline to further Group (by Month, Quarter, Year) will greatly enhance your analysis and presentation options. Skip,
metzgsk@voughtaircraft.com