Tabular Data or Data in Tabular format?

Published in News, Rants and Ephemera on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004

Maybe this has been mentioned before, or it's just me, but am I the only one who finds the term tabular data kind of funny? Who ever says (in official Mr. Science voice), "Lets go out and collect some tabular data today!"?

Sounds kinda nitpicky I know, but I keep coming across it and it seems to be catching on in css/non-table type conversations. Maybe "data in tabular format" would be better?

Comments and Feedback

No, it's just a technical term. Much like 'specificity' and 'semantics', we use it to impress the other sex. It's a geek thing.

Well, if that's the case then 'tabular data' is definitely smoother than the more clumsy 'data in a tabular format'!

How about "data that is best suited to be shown in a tabular format"? That's even more of a mouthful. :)

Sure is, how about we call it "dtibstbsiatf"?

Check out the blog categories for older content