Table Of Contents

Graph IDEData Graphics ► Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is a Table with textual cell entries that are stored with the table. The following figure shows some examples of spreadsheets.

Spreadsheet are Tables, derived from the Group graphic, implement many type of cell editing and generation features and coordinate associated representations which are Pie Chart, Bar And Column Chart, Scatter Graph, Line Graph, Point Map, 3D Point Map and 3D Scatter.

Some standard operations are itemized below.

A spreadsheet does not translate its cell textual values, rather it simply stores them. However, spreadsheets can reformat their cell entries giving the appearance of translation. Spreadsheets may be a convenient way to store tabulated textual values in a document which can then be used for other purposes such as general viewing of textual data or copy and paste to other tables found in various inspector editors. Spreadsheets may simply be used to compute column values for placement into other tables.

Spreadsheets (and Tables) can be used right away by dragging one from the factory palette. If you wish to customize a spreadsheet then follow this general guideline: First, resize the spreadsheet so that it only has one column and one row. Then in the Navigator expand the table and select the row, column or data cell Label or Rectangle graphic and alter those graphics. Once the graphics are altered then resize the spreadsheet to the desired number of rows and columns. Cells are duplicated from the last cell (the cells you just altered) so new cells take on graphic attributes that were previously set.

Spreadsheet Editor

The Spreadsheet Editor for the spreadsheet is shown below.

Overall

Table Title : Shows and defines the title of the table. If this title is updated then the titles of all representations associated with the spreadsheet are also updated.

Table Information : Shows the bounding number of rows and columns. Each column or row can be of different length and the bounding information shows the union of row and column lengths (the maximum of all the minimums).

Table Edit Controls

Component : Shows the currently selected table component (a row, column, cell or table) and has a drop down menu of common commands such as copy, paste and delete and if the component is a column then Formula to bring forward the Formula Selector.

Cell Controls : Used to select and edit a cell in the table. A cell can also be selected by selecting it directly in the spreadsheet itself.

Vertical Slider : Specifies the row offset of the table.

Horizontal Slider : Specifies the column offset of the table.

Currently Selected Column

Column Number : The column index associated with any column-wise operation such as sorting, formula generation, column header editing, column type and format assignments.

Operations : Operates on the data. The current operations are column-wise or full-spreadsheet sort ascending or descending. Note that sorting depends upon the data type so for numbers it is the usual ordinal operation, for strings it is lexical and for date values it is in terms of Julian day fractions (day and normalized-seconds within the day represented by the fractional amount).

Header Title : The title of the column.

Current Column Value Generation

Column entries can be generated using a formula as specified by the Formula Selector. Select the button to bring forward the formula selector.

Current Column Formatting And Units

The spreadsheet is a table with textual data. That textual data can be assigned a type and formatting on a per column basis. If a type is unassigned then the type is implied, either textual, scalar or date as the usage may indicate. For better control of data use, assign a type and then alter the formatter as needed.

Formatter Type : Shows the current type assigned. The default is None and can be changed to Text, Number or Date.

Formatter : Once a type is selected then select the Formatter Button to bring forward the Format Selector. Use that selector to enter formatting parameters. Formatting affects the translation of the data, but not the data itself.

Formatter Units : The Number Formatter accepts definable units Format Selector while other formatters implement implicit units. Use the unit selector to specify units of the data. This, in turn, is used to set units for representations (graphs) and also to limit graphs that can associate with the spreadsheet by the use of unit analysis (the units of the spreadsheet and graph must match).

Operations : Use this drop down to choose a formatter operation, typically to delete a formatter.

Graphs (Associated Representations)

This defines an association between a representation and a column. Once the representation is made then these associations can be changed using the representation's Arranger sub editor.

X/Independent : Specifies the column to associate with the independent variable (x axis). If None then the independent variable is unitized.

Y/Amplitude : Specifies the column to associate with the dependent variable (y axis) or amplitude values (in the case of a pie chart).

Z : Specifies the column to associate with the z axis. This is only enabled if a 3D perspective graph with no data is on the overlay with the spreadsheet.

Label : Specifies the column to associate with the label entries. If None then no labels are used.

Representations : Select an entry in the drop down menu to make a representation or to delete the associated representations. If the associated representation requires a graph then the operation will choose the graph nearest to the spreadsheet to place the representation in. If a graph does not exist in the Layer of the table then the operations that require a graph are disabled.

Table-Wide States

Use Formatting : When on then the formatters are used. When off then the table strictly represents cell elements without further modifications. You may wish to turn formatting of in order to copy and paste the raw data of the spreadsheet.

Can Edit : Momentarily turns the editing of the data on or off.

Event Qualifier : While Inactive spreadsheet acts like a general graphic, while Active the spreadsheet implements Table interaction so that mouse events operate on it like described in the Tables section, e.g.: The table values can be directly selected and edited. In addition, the associated graphics are also made active so that the Information Selector and Data Selector are enabled, see the Pie Chart section as an example of that.

Table Data Parameters

Data Type : Either Spreadsheet or None. When Spreadsheet then the table has a spreadsheet data type store. When None then the spreadsheet is a Tables and has no data backstore.

Preconfigured Data : One of Empty, Reference or Function. Empty clears all cells (deletes all the data), Reference places Cell descriptions in each cell and Function places various discrete values of a function into each column. Preconfigured data is mostly to give examples of the use of a spreadsheet.

Graphics Editor

The Graphics Editor for the spreadsheet is the same as the Group editor. Only use this editor to alter the appearance of the table.



© Copyright 1993-2022 by VVimaging, Inc. (VVI); All Rights Reserved. Please email support@vvi.com with any comments you have concerning this documentation. See Legal for trademark and legal information.