Tables are a highly flexible visualization designed to display data in columns and rows. They support various data types, including tables, time series, annotations, and raw JSON data. The table visualization can even take multiple data sets and provide the option to switch between them. With this versatility, it's the preferred visualization for viewing multiple data types, aiding in your data analysis needs.
You can use a table visualization to show datasets such as:
- Common database queries like logs, traces, metrics
- Financial reports
- Customer lists
- Product catalogs
Any information you might want to put in a spreadsheet can often be best visualized in a table.
Tables also provide different styles to visualize data inside the table cells such as colored text and cell backgrounds, gauges, sparklines, data links, JSON code, and images.
The following video provides a visual walkthrough of the options you can set in a table visualization. If you want to see a configuration in action, check out the video:
The table visualization supports any data that has a column-row structure.
### Example
```
Column1, Column2, Column3
value1 , value2 , value3
value4 , value5 , value6
value7 , value8 , value9
```
If a cell is missing or the table cell-row structure is not complete, the table visualization won’t display any of the data:
```
Column1, Column2, Column3
value1 , value2 , value3
gap1 , gap2
value4 , value5 , value6
```
If you need to hide columns, you can do so using [data transformations](ref:data-transformation), [field overrides](#field-overrides), or by [building a query](ref:build-query) that returns only the needed columns.
If you’re using a cell type such as sparkline or JSON, the data requirements may differ in a way that’s specific to that type. For more info refer to [Cell type](#cell-type).
## Debugging in tables
The table visualization helps with debugging when you need to know exactly what results your query is returning and why other visualizations might not be working. This functionality is also accessible in most visualizations by toggling on the **Table view** switch at the top of the panel:
Click the check box next to the values that you want to display. Enter text in the search field at the top to show those values in the display so that you can select them rather than scroll to find them.
- **Contains** - Matches a regex pattern (operator by default).
- **Expression** - Evaluates a boolean expression. The character `$` represents the column value in the expression (for example, "$ >= 10 && $ <= 12").
Click a column title to change the sort order from default to descending to ascending. Each time you click, the sort order changes to the next option in the cycle. You can sort multiple columns by holding the `shift` key and clicking the column name.
{{<figuresrc="/media/docs/grafana/panels-visualizations/TablePanelMultiSet.png"max-width="650px"alt="Table visualization with multiple datasets"class="docs-image--no-shadow">}}
If you are using a table created before Grafana 7.0, then you need to migrate to the new table version in order to see these options. To migrate, on the Panel tab, click **Table** visualization. Grafana updates the table version and you can then access all table options.
| Show table header | Show or hide column names imported from your data source. |
| Cell height | Set the height of the cell. Choose from **Small**, **Medium**, and **Large**. |
| Enable pagination | Toggle the switch to control how many table rows are visible at once. When switched on, the page size automatically adjusts to the height of the table. This option doesn't affect queries. |
| Minimum column width | Define the lower limit of the column width, in pixels. By default, the minimum width of the table column is 150 pixels. For small-screen devices, such as smartphones or tablets, reduce the default `150` pixel value to `50` to allow table-based panels to render correctly in dashboards. |
| Column width | Define a column width, in pixels, rather than allowing the width to be set automatically. By default, Grafana calculates the column width based on the table size and the minimum column width. |
| Column alignment | Set how Grafana should align cell contents. Choose from: **Auto** (default), **Left**, **Center**, and **Right**. |
| Column filter | Temporarily change how column data is displayed. For example, you can order values from highest to lowest or hide specific values. For more information, refer to [Filter table columns](#filter-table-columns). |
Toggle the **Show table footer** switch on and off to control the display of the footer. When the toggle is switched on, you can use the table footer to show [calculations](ref:calculations) on fields.
- **Calculation** - The calculation that you want to apply.
- **Fields** - The fields to which you want to apply the calculations. The system applies the calculation to all numeric fields if you do not select a field.
- **Count rows** - This options is displayed if you select the **Count** calculation. If you want to show the number of rows in the dataset instead of the number of values in the selected fields, toggle on the **Count rows** switch.
### Cell options
Cell options allow you to control how data is displayed in a table.
By default, Grafana automatically chooses display settings. You can override the settings by choosing one of the following options to set the default for all fields. Additional configuration is available for some cell types.
If you set these in the Field tab, then the type will apply to all fields, including the time field. Many options will work best if you set them in the Override tab so that they can be restricted to one or more fields.
| Auto | The **Auto** cell type automatically displays values, with sensible defaults applied. |
| [Sparkline](#sparkline) | Shows values rendered as a sparkline. |
| [Colored text](#colored-text) | If thresholds are set, then the field text is displayed in the appropriate threshold color. |
| [Colored background](#colored-background) | If thresholds are set, then the field background is displayed in the appropriate threshold color. |
| [Gauge](#gauge) | Cells can be displayed as a graphical gauge, with several different presentation types. You can set the [Gauge display mode](#gauge-display-mode) and the [Value display](#value-display) options. |
| Data links | If you've configured data links, when the cell type is **Auto** mode, the cell text becomes clickable. If you change the cell type to **Data links**, the cell text reflects the titles of the configured data links. To control the application of data link text more granularly use a **Cell option > Cell type > Data links** field override. |
| [JSON View](#json-view) | Shows value formatted as code. |
| [Image](#image) | If you have a field value that is an image URL or a base64 encoded image you can configure the table to display it as an image. |
##### Sparkline
Shows values rendered as a sparkline. You can show sparklines using the [Time series to table transformation](ref:time-series-to-table-transformation) on data with multiple time series to process it into a format the table can show.
You can customize sparklines with many of the same options as the [time series visualization](ref:time-series-panel) including line style and width, fill opacity, gradient mode, and more. You can also change the color of the sparkline by updating the [color scheme](ref:color-scheme) in the **Standard options** section of the panel configuration.
The maximum and minimum values of the gauges are configured automatically from the smallest and largest values in your whole data set. If you don't want the max/min values to be pulled from the whole data set, you can configure them for each column with field overrides.
Text wrapping is in [public preview](https://grafana.com/docs/release-life-cycle/#public-preview), however, it’s available to use by default. We’d love hear from you about how this new feature is working. To provide feedback, you can open an issue in the [Grafana GitHub repository](https://github.com/grafana/grafana).
{{</admonition>}}
Toggle the **Wrap text** switch to wrap text in the cell with the longest content in your table. To wrap the text in a specific column only, use the Wrap Text option in a [field override](ref:field-override).
Enables value inspection from table cells. When the **Cell inspect value** switch is toggled on, clicking the inspect icon in a cell opens the **Inspect value** drawer.
The **Inspect value** drawer has two tabs, **Plain text** and **Code editor**. Grafana attempts to automatically detect the type of data in the cell and opens the drawer with the associated tab showing. However, you can switch back and forth between tabs.
Cell value inspection is only available when the **Cell type** selection is **Auto**, **Colored text**, **Colored background**, or **JSON View**.
