Tabular Data

Synonyms

Table

Definition

From microdata, tabular data can be generated by crossing one or more categorical attributes. Formally, a table is a function

$$ T : D({V}_{i1}) \times D({V}_{i2}) \ \times \mathrel{\cdots } \times\ D({V}_{il}) \rightarrow {\mathbb {R}}\ {\rm or} \ {\mathbb {N}} $$

where l ≤ t is the number of crossed categorical attributes V_{ij} and D(V_{ij}) is the domain of attribute V_{ij}.

Key Points

There are two kinds of tables: frequency tables that display the count of respondents at the crossing of the categorical attributes (in N) and magnitude tables that display information on a numerical attribute at the crossing of the categorical attributes (in ℝ). For example, given some census microdata containing attributes “Job” and “Town,” one can generate a frequency tabledisplaying the count of respondents doing each job type in each town. If the census microdata also contain the “Salary,” attribute, one can generate a magnitude table displaying the average salary for...