What are some alternatives to presenting data instead of tables?

Question

What are some alternatives to representing tabular data? Currently, I am trying to construct a table but seeing as how, everyone in my class will be doing that, I want to stand out and I'm looking to do something that has the same effect but is different. Below is the general layout of the table that I currently have:

An example of the table I have

I was thinking about a timeline but I doubt it would fit all the information I wanna have.

EDIT: I notice this question has two close votes and I'm trying to understand the motivation behind them. I feel this question pertains to a good portion of individuals that may wish to know how to present their data in something other than a table.

I reckon something from the excellent smartdiagram package would work pretty well- there's a lot of examples to choose from and tweak in the manual :) — cmhughes, Oct 29 '13 at 04:04
perhaps the answers to Putting a timeline for dates in moderncv could be helpful — cmhughes, Nov 02 '13 at 03:50
Good point but this is more for an implementation style thing so that won't be as useful. The main issue with a timeline implementation is that it gives too much of a general picture which is not something I am looking for. — Jeel Shah, Nov 02 '13 at 03:55

score 18 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 29 '13 at 04:14

You could try a timeline like the diagram below (modified from another post on SX.TEX):

enter image description here

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[left=2.5cm,right=2.0cm,top=2cm,bottom=2.0cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{HS}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage{tikz} 
\usetikzlibrary{chains,shapes.arrows,fit}

\definecolor{arrowcolor}{RGB}{201,216,232}% color for the arrow filling
\definecolor{circlecolor}{RGB}{79,129,189}% color for the inner circles filling
\colorlet{textcolor}{white}% color for the text inside the circles
\colorlet{bordercolor}{white}% color for the outer border of circles

\pgfdeclarelayer{background}
\pgfsetlayers{background,main}

\newcounter{task}

\newlength\taskwidth% width of the box for the task description
\newlength\taskvsep% vertical distance between the task description and arrow

\setlength\taskwidth{2.5cm}
\setlength\taskvsep{17pt}

\def\taskpos{}
\def\taskanchor{}

\newcommand\task[1]{%
  {\parbox[t]{\taskwidth}{\scriptsize\Centering#1}}}

\tikzset{
inner/.style={
  on chain,
  circle,
  inner sep=2pt,
  fill=circlecolor,
  line width=1.5pt,
  draw=bordercolor,
  text width=1.2em,
  align=center,
  text height=1.25ex,
  text depth=0ex
},
on grid
}

\newcommand\Task[2][]{%
\node[inner xsep=0pt] (c1) {\phantom{A}};
\stepcounter{task}
\ifodd\thetask\relax
  \renewcommand\taskpos{\taskvsep}\renewcommand\taskanchor{south}
\else
  \renewcommand\taskpos{-\taskvsep}\renewcommand\taskanchor{north}
\fi
\node[inner,font=\footnotesize\sffamily\color{textcolor}]    
  (c\the\numexpr\value{task}+1\relax) {#1};
\node[anchor=\taskanchor,yshift=\taskpos] 
  at (c\the\numexpr\value{task}+1\relax) {\task{#2}};
}

\newcommand\drawarrow{% the arrow is placed in the background layer 
                                                     % after the node for the tasks have been placed
\ifnum\thetask=0\relax
  \node[on chain] (c1) {}; % if no \Task command is used, the arrow will be drawn
\fi
\node[on chain] (f) {};
\begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
\node[
  inner sep=10pt,
  single arrow,
  single arrow head extend=0.8cm,
  draw=none,
  fill=arrowcolor,
  fit= (c1) (f)
] (arrow) {};
\fill[white] % the decoration at the tail of the arrow
  (arrow.before tail) -- (c1|-arrow.west) -- (arrow.after tail) -- cycle;
\end{pgfonlayer}
}

\newenvironment{timeline}[1][node distance=.6\taskwidth]
  {\par\noindent\begin{tikzpicture}[start chain,#1]}
  {\drawarrow\end{tikzpicture}\par}


\begin{document}
\setlength\taskwidth{2.6cm}
\begin{timeline}
\Task[1]{Short run\\ 1 days}
\Task[2]{1 week  \\ 10/10/2013}
\Task[3]{1 month \\ 3/10/2013}
\Task[4]{Technical Evaluation \\ 7/10/2013}
\Task[5]{Submittal Preparation \\ 17/10/2013}
\Task[6]{Submittal \\ 18/10/2013}
\Task[7]{Approval \\ 3/11/2013}
\Task[8]{Order\\ 5/11/2013}
\Task[9]{Delivery\\28 Feb 2014}
\end{timeline}


\end{document}

You can combine all in one, or have three one for short term, medium and long term, perhaps with color coding.

I considered this option but the issue here is that I can't add about 2-3 points on the timeline because there won't be enough space or it may look too cluttered. — Jeel Shah, Oct 29 '13 at 04:20
@gekkostate Thanks. That is why I suggested maybe have three. You can also vary the length this way to visually represent time. — yannisl, Oct 29 '13 at 04:24
@HarishKumar This is a private package, not needed for the example. I forgot to delete it when I posted the example. — yannisl, Oct 29 '13 at 10:50

yannisl · Answer 2 · 2013-11-01T19:44:59.643

I am just adding another answer to the one I provided earlier as this takes a different view all together.

The best and most succinct way to express and visualize timelines are maths.

enter image description here

I am in agreement that presenting such data in a table is a horrendous idea. I also dislike the terms medium term, long term etc as a) they smell too much of enterprise talk and b) they remind me of 5 year and 10 year plans of economic committees in long forgotten and fallen Evil Empires.

I am not sure if a gantt chart is a better solution, as you have not added adequate detail, but you can also try pgfgantt.

Visualizations such as the one I provided help in viewing time dependent data at a glance. They can have many forms. Tufte's website is a good place to start. Here anything goes and is bounded only by imagination not code.

enter image description here

The image above is from the codex seraphinianus. It is a time line describing the transformation of a flowering plant to a flying machine in the medium to the long term. It comes with instructions. Let your imagination go wild.

+1 for any answer that manages to work in the Codex Seraphinianus! — Paul M., Nov 04 '13 at 03:43

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 18 '17 at 08:12

May be a classic schema:

MWE

Or a less classic schema:

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{schemata}
\usepackage{amssymb}


\newcommand\SB[2]{\schema{\schemabox{#1}}{\schemabox{#2}}} 

\begin{document}


\SB{Time period \\and length}{
 \SB{Short\\Run}{
  \SB{1 Day}{The first day and \\ something and something \\ dummy text \ldots}\\\\\
  \SB{1 Week}{Begin}
  }\\
  \\
  \SB{Medium\\Run}{
  \SB{1 Month}{Then do\\ this}\\
  \\
  \SB{6 Months}{lalala}
}\\
\\
\SB{Long Run}{
\SB{1 Year}{or something}}
}

\vspace{3cm} 


\newcommand\TL[1]{\rule[.35ex]{#1mm}{.5ex}\hspace{-1ex}$\blacktriangleright$}


\SB{Time \\period \\and \\length}{
 \SB{Short\\Run}{
 $\bullet$ \SB{1 Day}{The first day and  something and something dummy text \ldots}\\
  $\bullet\bullet\bullet\bullet\bullet$
  \SB{1 Week}{Begin}
  }\\
\SB{Medium Run}{
  \TL{6}\SB{1 Month}{Then do this}\\
  \TL{31}\SB{6 Months}{lalala}
}\\
Long Run \TL{61}\SB{}{
\SB{1 Year}{or something}}
}

\end{document}

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 04 '13 at 23:18

2

Sometimes called the greatest graph of all time, the 1812 march of Napoleon's Army to and from Moscow portrays the relationship of 6 variables (size of army, 2-D position of army, 2-D direction of movement, temperature) in a single graph.

A copy hangs in the hallway here at work. It inspires. Now how to do something similar in LaTeX, that is a different question.

enter image description here

answered Nov 04 '13 at 23:18

Steven B. Segletes

237,551

4

To do it with LaTeX, look at How to draw a Sankey Diagram using TikZ – Paul Gaborit Nov 04 '13 at 23:24
1

I would have used a colormap for temperature instead of a separate plot, and different patterns for going forwards/backwards! :P – JorgeGT Nov 07 '13 at 15:58

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 29 '13 at 03:10

You could have a sort of indented tree diagram, like the outline view of some word processors.

Short Run
  1 Day
    Description
  1 Week
   Description
Medium Run
  1 Month
    Description
  6 Months
    Description
Long Run
  1 Run
    Description

Horizontal rules (sparingly used) might help to structure such a diagram.

What are some alternatives to presenting data instead of tables?

5 Answers5

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