Creating Data Tables

Once you get the hang of using integration-related functions, you'll want to know how to work with your newly-acquired data. For example, you'll want to display it nicely in a table.

That's where data tables come in. Unlike normal tables (where you type or paste in the data by hand) data tables are dynamically created based on data retrieved from a function. You just have to tell Rows where the table should go, and what columns it should have.

Data Table Example

Here's an example walkthough of how data tables work:

What exactly is happening in this walkthrough?

• We use the SEARCH_COMPANIES function to get results for venture capital companies in Berlin with over 100 employees.
  
  
• The result of the function is stored in a single {companies} cell, but we want to see the results in a table.
  
  
• We click the cell actions button to open the Cell Actions menu and select Create Data Table
  
  
• In the Data Explorer Wizard we select the attributes that we want to see, select where table should appear and click Create Data Table

🎉And there we have it, we have the data exactly how we want it, in an easy-to-read table.

Creating Data Tables

That walkthough was a nice quick introduction but let's take a closer look at the process in more detail.

You get the option to insert a Data Table when you use any integration-related function (or a custom API request) — basically any function that pulls data from an external service.

Therefore, the first prerequisite step is to insert an integration function such as SEARCH_COMPANIES or SEARCH_TWEETS_TWITTER.

To create a data table from the result of a function, follow these steps:

1. In the {data} cell, click the Cell Actions button and in the menu that appears, click Create Data Table.
   

2. Configure the options for the Data Table:

   Option	Use To
   Table Headers	Select the attributes that you want to see such as "company size" or "location". This adds table headers for the attributes as well as the data itself.
   Table Orientation	Select where the headers should go. The default option puts the headers in the first row, so that each column has a name. You can also put the headers in the first column, so that each row has a name.
   Table Behavior	Choose what should happen when the function is refreshed. The default option always replaces the entire set of results with the newest data. You can also choose to retain previous results and only add new data and updates to existing rows.
   Table Destination	Select where the table should go. The default option is to insert the table right underneath the {data} cell but you can also put it in a separate Table if you want to keep the results separate from the formula.

3. Click Create Data Table.

   • If this button is disabled, double check that you've selected some Table Headers first.

Editing Data Tables

You can adjust the structure and behaviour of a data table after you've created it. For example, here's a short walkthrough where we change the columns from the previous example.

There's also an easy way to delete the data table or update the source data.

Editing a Data Table

To edit a data table, follow these steps

1. Select a cell anywhere within the Data Table to make it active.
   • When the Data Table is active, you should see the Data Table Actions button in the top-right corner.
     
     
2. Click the Data Table Actions button and in the menu that appears, click Edit Data Table.
   
   
3. In the Data Table options panel, update the Table Headers, Orientation, Behaviour or Destination.

💡 To quickly remove headers, mouse over the header names in the Table Headers field and click X.

Deleting a Data Table

To delete a data table:

• in the {data} cell, click the Cell Actions button and in the menu that appears, click Delete data table.
  
  

Changing the Data Sources for a Data Table

You might add another data source if you're working with a function that accepts only one search parameter at a time. For example, take the GET_COMPANY_BY_DOMAIN function.

Suppose that you want to create a table that displays company information about several brands as in the following screenshot.

How did we create this table?

• In the Brands column, we've typed in the domain names of the brands that we're interested in.
  
  
• In the Results column, we entered the function GET_COMPANY_BY_DOMAIN in each row, and used the Brands column for the domain parameter.
  
  
• We created a Data Table out of the first result (B2) which gives us the full details for adidas.com in the remainder of row 2.
  
  
• We added B3 (the "puma.com" results) and B4 (the "nike.com" results) as extra sources for our Data Table.
  
  
• The Data Table full now includes company details for each company in the Brand column.

To change the data sources for a data table, follow these steps:

1. In the {data} cell, click the Cell Actions button and in the menu that appears, click Edit data table.
   
   
2. In the options panel, open the Source tab.
   
   
3. On the Source tab, click +Add another source and in the field that appears, enter the address of the additional {data} cell (for example, A2).