A table is data’s natural habitat. In a database, a table is a series of fields, with the values of those fields arranged in rows, each row with a value corresponding to a field. Tables in databases are connected via entity and foreign keys.
Databases are made up of tables, but table can also refer to a type of data visualization, or chart. The table visualization resembles a spreadsheet, with columns corresponding to fields (or aggregations, in the case of custom columns).
Example table in Metabase
Metabase’s Sample Database contains four tables: Products, Orders, People, and Reviews.
Figure 1 shows a question in Metabase visualized as a table. This question adds one filter to the People table, so that our result is a table of our customers whose State is Georgia:
With the toggle below the table, we can alternate between viewing this question as a table and as a pin map (or whatever other visualization you’ve chosen).
Key article
Related terms
Further reading
Put it to work
- Accounts receivable aging — Metric
- AR aging and collections dashboard — Dashboard
