Table Lens Overview

Structure

Like a spreadsheet, the Table Lens organizes data into columns and rows. Initially, the columns are large, but the rows are compressed. Each row is a unit, and each column is an attribute that each unit has. The attributes of State and Station indicate the position of a Unit in the tree.

Interaction

Here are some operations you can perform on the table:

Enlarging compressed rows

Position the mouse in any column with a heading, hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor up or down to expand view the values for a range of rows, then release the button. You can use the small boxes the border of the enlarged area to resize the expanded area.

Shifting enlarged rows

You can shift the expanded area up or down, changing its focus, by dragging the bottom or top line around the enlarged rows.

Resetting

To reset the display, click the third colored icon from the left in the menu bar in the upper left (tool tip: “Unfocus all”).

Sorting

Sort the rows by any column by left clicking once on the column header to sort in descending order by that column. Click the same column header to sort by ascending order by that column.

Anchoring

If you drag a column header to the left of the vertical gray bar, the column will anchor (stay to the left of the bar). You can sort by an anchored column by clicking on its header, as before. You can anchor as many columns as you want, and you can sort by all of these anchored columns at once. Even with sorted, anchored columns, you can still sort by an unanchored column. To unanchor a column, drag it to the right, past the vertical gray bar.

To enlarge all the rows for a section of anchored column, right click on that section and click “Focus.”

Changing column order

You can also drag columns left and right to change the order of the columns.

Filtering

To filter the rows of a column, right click on the column header, left click on “Filter,” and select the values to filter. Then click OK. To undo filters, close the file.