Wide and narrow data

Wide and narrow (sometimes un-stacked and stacked) are terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data.[1][2]

Wide

Wide, or unstacked data is presented with each different data variable in a separate column.

Person Age Weight
Bob 32 128
Alice 24 86
Steve 64 95

Narrow

Narrow, or stacked data is presented with one column containing all the values and another column listing the context of the value

Person Variable Value
Bob Age 32
Bob Weight 128
Alice Age 24
Alice Weight 86
Steve Age 64
Steve Weight 95

This is often easier to implement, addition of a new field does not require any changes to the structure of the table, however it can be harder for people to understand.

Implementations

Many statistical and data processing systems have functions to convert between these two presentations, for instance the R programming language has several packages such as the reshape package

See also

References

  1. Thompson, M. E. (1997), Theory of sample surveys, Chapman & Hall, London. ISBN 0-412-31780-X
  2. Chantala, K. (2006) "Using STATA to Analyze data from a Sample Survey". 1-10-2001. UNC Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center. 10-1-2006.
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