Skip to the content

User guide > Data Browser > Data selection and display > How to manage tables

In the data display part of the Data Browser, choose the table display option: 

Screenshot of the tabs in the display options with Table, Line, Bar and Map shown

Limitations

Some technical limitations apply: 

  • maximum amount of columns (including breakdown if used) is 2 000
  • maximum amount of rows (including breakdown if used) is 2 000
  • maximum amount of cells is 120 000

If you exceed these limits with your data selection, an error message will appear.

This limitation adds up to the interactivity limit (see this page)

Special value and flags

The following can appear in the table display:

  • special value: this is a value that can be present in data cells. It does not represent a statistical data value, but replace them. The only existing special values is a colon (:), which means that there is no data available in this cell. For example: In this example, no data is available for Belgium and Bulgaria 
    Screenshot of the table view showing Belgium and Bulgaria in the row and empty cells with a colon in the column
     
  • flags: provide additional information about a specific statistical data. When present, this is added behind the data value in the cell of the table. Please consult our table showing the meaning for each available flags. An explanation of those flags used in the current selection of your table is available below the table display
    Screenshot of an example of the list of special value and flags available in a dataset
     Please note: Flags can also be combined, for example a data value in a cell can be marked with (ep), meaning the value should be understood as being an estimate (flag 'e') and provisional (flag 'p').

Format options

The format option button is located on the upper right-hand side of the data display section of the Data Browser.

Screenshot of the data display section showing the 'Format options' button located to the right-hand side
 

Clicking on 'Format options' will open a pop-up. Using the options displayed, you can customise many display features to get to the desired result. There are 2 kind of format options:

  • general options: these options apply to all the data display options (table, line, bar, map)
  • specific options: each data display option has specific formatting possibilities

These can be distinguished by their headings displayed in the pop-up:

Screenshot of the pop-up for the format options showing the left side panel with the headings 'General options' and 'Specific options' highlighted

General options

For more information on the general options and their settings, please refer to our section on how to use the format options.

Specific options

In the table display, you have the following specific options,as presented in the left side tabs of the pop-up:

Screenshot of the format options pop-up showing the left side menu with different tabs for the 'Specific options'.

Empty cells

Under this tab, you can chose to hide empty rows and / or columns from the table. For example, if there no data for Belgium (listed in the row) or for year 2024 (listed in the column), you can choose to not display these empty lines.

Please note that in order for this to work the entire row or column needs to be empty. By default, the setting is set to show all empty rows and columns and in the table view, these empty rows and columns are shown: 
Screenshot of an example where an empty row is shown for a country, meaning no data is displayed and all data is marked as non-available using a colon symbol

If you chose to change this, you can click to unselect the default option for rows, columns, or both

 Screenshot showing the toggle for 'Hide empty rows' and 'Hide empty columns' set to true.
When you are done, please either move on the the next tab in the left-side menu or click on the button 'Apply' located at the bottom right-hand side of the pop-up.

Once this setting is active, an information pop-up appears to inform you that this change has been applied in your table display:

Screenshot of an example message in the pop-up informing you that empty rows or columns have been hidden from the display

In the table view, these rows and / or columns have now been hidden:
Screenshot of the same table view with the row for a country with no data hidden

Colour palette

You can change this to mono-colour or contrasted colour. 

Data displayed

Under this tab, you can set the following options:

Screenshot of the data display options.
 

Highlighted

The first option in the list called 'highlighted' allows the table to display the positions currently highlighted, based on highlighting done by you in another display mode or in the current table display.

 In the table view, this mode is applied only to positions of the dimension which is displayed in the row. It is not possible to highlight positions in the column. To change the dimensions set in the row, please consult our chapter on how to customise the layout.

In order to highlight positions in the table view, you need to close the format options and click on the 'Highlight' button located on the top right-hand side of the table display.

Screenshot of the right-hand side panel on top of the table display with the button called 'Highlight'.

This will open a box which shows the positions of the dimension which is displayed in the row of the table layout. Then you can select the positions that you wish to highlight. In the example below, for the 'Geopolitical entity', which is the dimension located in the row of the table layout, the European Union and Belgium have been selected to be highlighted:

Screenshot of the box to select or remove positions to be highlighted in the table view.

This results in these countries being highlighted in the table view by adding a thicker line behind the cells in that row.

Screenshot of the positions of EU and Belgium being highlighted in the table view.
 

In case, you selected the format option 'Highlighted', but did not define any positions that you wish to highlight, an information box will appear:

Screenshot of the information box saying 'No highlighted positions found, applying default values. Please click on the highlight menu icon for further modification.'
 

The following rules will apply, depending on which dimension you have selected to be displayed in the row of the table:

  • geopolitical entity (GEO) dimension (or with a related dimension): if aggregates for the EU and euro area (EA) have been selected, the current EU and EA aggregates are highlighted. 
  • GEO dimension (or with a related dimension): if no aggregates for the EU and EA have been selected, the data series with the highest value of the most recent time period is taken, first among the EU member states or then on the full selection. We do not recommend to apply this, but to go into the highlighting option and choose a more meaningful approach. 
  • non-GEO dimension: the series having the highest value of the most recent time period is taken.

Summary

The second option in the list called 'summary' allows the table to display a summarised version of the selected data.

The summary is built on the following principles:

  • Among the selected positions, the following positions are the only ones displayed in the table, on the basis of the last available statistical data for each row:
    • top 8 rows
    • 8 average middle rows
    • Bottom 8 rows
  • In this mode, all the other rows are hidden.
  • Rows corresponding to positions for which no statistical data is available at all will not be taken into account into this calculation.

The amount of positions selected does not change. However, only the rows corresponding to the "Top 8 - Middle 8 - Bottom 8" rule exposed above will be displayed. All the other rows are masked. A warning message is also displayed above the table.

Selected

The third and default option in the list called 'selected' allows to display all the positions you selected in the table.

Rows are displayed:

  • with a white background if they are not highlighted
  • with a background with a small coloured line if they are highlighted

Other layout actions

The following options are available:

  • resize the column width: Position the cursor of the mouse on any boundary of the columns headings to make the resize icon appear. Move the boundary to adjust the column width. Double click on the boundary to minimise the column width.
  • sort entries: click on the arrows Screenshot of arrows icon displayed next to the label or code in the row or column to change the sorting of the positions:
    Screenshot of the table display showing the location in the row and column where the sort entry arrows are located.

    Available sorting orders for the rows are:
    • default sorting order, for example, the default sorting order for the geopolitical entity (GEO) dimension is the protocol order
    • descending (9→0) / reversed alphabetical (Z → A) sorting order
    • ascending (0→9) / Alphabetical (A→Z) sorting order

    Available sorting orders for the columns are:
    • no sorting based on this column (default)
    • descending (9→0) sorting order
    • ascending (0→9)sorting order

     Please note that when sorting, the absence of a value (represented by the colon symbol) is considered greater than any other real data values.

Remember if you are lost in layout, you can always reset the dataset to its default view. 
Read how to reset to default view

Access full user guide