atw: Re: Do you "sort a column" or "sort the data in a column" ?
- From: Eric Lee <ericylee80@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 21:49:31 +0530
Hi,
Thank you so much for all the useful information you shared.
After reading all the suggestions, I am kind of inclined towards using
"sorting data in the columns"...I noticed that some of our existing
documents tend to have "sorting data in the columns" ..So I am sticking with
that, for now..
Thanks again for your help..
Regards,
Eric
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Peter G Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Pause, everyone, and think a bit...
>
> The reason for having data in a table is usually to display a series of
> associations between data in rows and component data in columns. That is,
> in each row, you have a series of values, each of which is related to and
> linked with, all the others.
> Then in columns you have ways of classifying the components in the rows
> into categories of various kinds.
>
> If then when you sort only the data in a particular column, you destroy the
> reason for having tabulated rows of data in the first place.
> The associations are broken.
>
> So the usual practice is to sort the row data on the basis of a "key" in a
> particular column -- ie that key determines a new order, and
> usually the table is then reorganised so that the sorted keys are still
> matched to the same rows -- ie, all data in each row is moved to a "new"
> position in the table (or not, as the case may be).
>
> You seldom really want to sort the column itself and thereby destroy the
> reason for having a table.
>
> -Peter M
>
>
> On 3/06/2010 2:27 PM, Ken Randall wrote:
>
> Objectively, it is the the *data* in the columns being sorted.
>
> When someone says "sort the column" they are omitting the
> words "the data in" ("sort *the* *data in* the column") because
> data is the only thing that can appear in columns. The speaker
> knows both that fact and that their interlocutor is also aware of
> it.
>
> Therefore the speaker does not need to mention data explicitly.
>
> --- On *Thu, 3/6/10, Eric Lee <ericylee80@xxxxxxxxx><ericylee80@xxxxxxxxx>
> * wrote:
>
>
> From: Eric Lee <ericylee80@xxxxxxxxx> <ericylee80@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: atw: Do you "sort a column" or "sort the data in a column" ?
> To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Received: Thursday, 3 June, 2010, 12:39 PM
>
> Hi List,
>
> I had another bout of the "confusion attack" this morning.
>
> While highlighting the latest enhancements to our product in the
> release notes, I was struck when it came to describing a new feature that
> allows users to click the column title so that the information displayed in
> that column can be (re)organized alphabetically, or numerically.
> Do we say "you can now sort data by clicking the column title" or merely
> "you now sort columns by clicking the column title" ?
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> Eric
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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