Spreadsheet
A program, or a file made with one, that arranges values in a grid of cells where any cell can hold any kind of value or a formula.
That freedom is why spreadsheets are easy to start and hard to trust at size. Nothing enforces one type per column, and what a cell displays can differ from what it stores, as with dates and long numbers.
Where it comes up
- Merged and multi-row headersThe column names are spread over two or more rows, often with merged cells, so no single row names every column.
- One table split across sheetsRows that belong in one table are spread over several sheets or files, one per month, region, or person.
- Totals and notes rows inside the dataRows that are not records, such as subtotals, grand totals, and footnotes, sit among the rows that are.
See also
- Tabular dataData arranged in rows and columns, where each row is one item and each column holds one attribute of every item.
- SchemaThe declared structure of a dataset: its columns, their names and types, and the rules they must satisfy.
- Serial dateA date stored as a count of days from a fixed starting date, which is how a spreadsheet keeps dates internally. The number 45000 is a day in March 2023 under the most common starting date.