The Dreaded 18 Column Table

kraftomatic

Hey Guys,

I've been using DataTables and loving it. Of course I have someone who "needs" a table with 18 or so columns of data. About eight of them are date fields, and all the columns need to be sortable. There are other dropdowns as well which are planned to be filters for rendering the data.

In your experience, what do you guys do when faced with too much data to realistically display on a page? Color coding, popovers, drilldown, etc are viable options .. I just can't see needing to display 8 columns of dates, other than the fact they are needed for the sorting ability. Just wanting to see what everyone else thinks.

Thanks!

allan

There are lots of options. Here are a few:

1. x-scrolling
2. x-scrolling with FixedColumns
3. drill down data (open / close rows)
4. hidden columns (ColVis)
5. modals
6. tooptips

And probably more I've not thought of off the top of my head :-)

I've used all of the options above, and all work well - it basically depends on how you want to display your data.

Allan

kraftomatic

Thanks Allan. Part of the issue is that eight of the columns could be halved - 4 are status fields and the other 4 are the dates for each status. It seems wasteful to show the status and date for each of the four .. I was thinking of maybe hiding the dates and having the sorts on the status, go off the date. And/or have the date be a tooltip on each status.

Any better ideas you might have? :)