Working with tables
General features relevant to many table types are described in this section. For functionality associated with specific table types, please refer to the manual section describing that particular data type.
Key functionality available for tables includes:
- Sorting A table can be sorted according to the values of a particular column by clicking a column header. Clicking once will sort in ascending order. A second click will change the order to descending. A third click will set the order back its original order.
Pressing Ctrl -
on Mac - while you click other columns will refine the existing sorting with the values of the additional columns, in the order in which you clicked them.
- Configuring the view This includes specifying which columns should be visible and defining the column order (see Table view settings and column ordering).
View settings can be saved for later use, with a specific table or for any similar table. (see Side Panel view settings).
- Displaying only the selected rows Click on the Filter to Selection... button above a table to update the view to show only the selected rows.
Rows can be selected manually, or by using the "Select in other views" option, which is available for some tables, generally those with an associated graphical view such as a Venn diagram, or a volcano plot.
To view the full table again, click on the Filter to Selection... button and choosing the option Clear selection filter.
- Displaying only rows with content of interest Tables can be interactively filtered using simple or complex search criteria such that only rows containing content of interest are shown. Sets of table filters can be saved for re-use. See Filtering tables for details.
Scroll bars appear at the bottom and at the right of a table when table contents exceed the size of the viewing area.
Table-specific right-click menu options
Right-clicking within a table reveals standard right-click menu options, as well as the following table-specific options:
- File |Export Table Export the table to CSV, TSV, HTML or Excel format. Filtering, sorting, column selection and column order are respected when exporting the table this way.
- Edit | Copy Cell Right-click on a cell and choose this option to copy the contents of that cell to the clipboard.
The option call Table filters, also available in the right-click menu, is explained in Filtering tables.
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