Tabular Data

Synonyms

Table

Definition

From microdata, tabular data can be generated by crossing one or more categorical attributes. Formally, a table is a function

$$ T:D\left({V}_{i1}\right)\times D\left({V}_{i2}\right)\ \times \cdots \times \ D\left({V}_{il}\right)\\ {}\to \mathbb{R}\ \mathrm{or}\ \mathbb{N} $$

where l ≤ t is the number of crossed categorical attributes V_ij and D(V_ij) is the domain of attribute V_ij.

Key Points

There are two kinds of tables: frequency tables that display the count of respondents at the crossing of the categorical attributes (in N) and magnitude tables that display information on a numerical attribute at the crossing of the categorical attributes (in ℝ). For example, given some census microdata containing attributes “Job” and “Town,” one can generate a frequency tabledisplaying the count of respondents doing each job type in each town. If the census microdata also contain the “Salary,” attribute, one can generate a magnitude table displaying the average salary...