A table is an organized collection of data where each column represents a distinct attribute and each row represents a single record. Tables are the dominant data structure in spreadsheet modeling; most Sheets functions are designed to operate on tabular data.
For best practices around table design, see Taming Spreadsheet Data Structure For Success.
Native tables
Google Sheets supports a native table feature (Insert > Table) that formalizes a cell range into a structured object. Native tables provide:
- Type constraints — columns enforce a consistent data type, surfacing common errors such as numbers stored as text.
- Structured references — column headers become named references usable in formulas, similar to named ranges but scoped to the table.
- Filter views and aggregations — built-in filtering, sorting, and group-by operations that do not alter the underlying data.
- Auto-expansion — rows added adjacent to the table are automatically included.
See Also
- Array — the computational representation of tabular data in formulas.
- QUERY — SQL-like operations on tabular data.
- Taming Spreadsheet Data Structure For Success — community guide on table design.