Best practices to create a data table

Pre-requisites for data table creation

Here are a few quick checklists you should review before creating any data table.

Focus on key type:

• A key type in the data table is an option that is unique from one record to another in any data table. It is categorized into primary and composite keys.
• The element that is selected as the primary key is the element that is unique across the data table.
• A composite key is a combination key with two or multiple elements that, when combined, will show up as a unique key.
• The choice of primary vs composite key selection completely depends on the use case.

For example

1. If you create a data table of employee master, you would select the employee code as the primary key. The employee code is unique from one employee to the other.
2. If you are creating a data table to capture the information against a set, maybe employee data under a branch, you would select the key type as composite, and the choice of elements would be branch name, employee code. The combination is unique.

Pre-requisites to follow when uploading data through excel:

If you are uploading multiple records to a data table through excel, here’s what you can check on:

Format the rows: Each row should be formatted according to the element type to avoid data mismatch or upload errors.

Sometimes it happens that you add 12-March-2021 in the date field through excel, but when it is uploaded in Quixy, it shows 441287.

The reason here is that the date field of excel acts as a number format and is converted to a number field.

Creating the right functions

• The platform currently provides a choice of creating automatic data functions by the system while creating the data table. These system-generated functions are created in line with the key type of that data table.
• It’s always necessary to check the system-generated functions before they are used in any of the apps. Not all the use cases will suffice with the system-generated functions.
• The users can always edit the system-created functions or create new ones according to the use case.

Deleting data table records:

• Data/records once deleted from the data table, cannot be retrieved by any chance. It’s good to check twice before you tap the delete button.

Best practices to follow while creating a data table

Here are a few tips to help you with your data table creation process.

Structuring the data table:

• Make sure to use the appropriate elements for the data you wish to capture.
  You can use the email ID element type if you wish to capture an email address.
• Master data vs Transaction data: Data tables can be created for either storing the master data of your employees/products, etc. or for recording the transaction data, i.e., the records that are saved to the data table from an app.

For transnational data capture, you will have to properly map each data table element from the desired application.

• List vs Single Data: When you are adding data from a grid in an app, it is always suggested to create a separate data table for capturing the grid level data and other data tables for capturing the data outside the grid.

For example, consider an employee data app with a grid to capture educational qualifications and contact information but no designation outside the grid.

We can create a data table called "employee education qualifications" to capture all the grid level elements with the employee code; similarly, another data table called "employee information" to capture the fields outside the grid.

• Joining the data tables: As mentioned above, we are creating a common element for both data tables- employee code. This common element will help us to create reports or view data by joining the set of data tables.
• Data tables with many rows: Naming the data table elements shall play an important part, especially for the tables which capture huge amounts of data (many rows).

Ordering the rows of elements in a data table can help in better representation of data while creating reports or viewing the data in a table.
 

Excel Export Template: If you upload the records to the data table through Excel, then the export template option will ease your work. An export template will export all the data table fields in order so that you can add the data and upload it back in a single go. This saves you time and effort.