# Is it “rows by columns” or “columns by rows”?

I've got a data table like:

ID  Low Color    Med Color     High Color
1        234          123            324
2          4          432           3423


The rows are widgets, the columns are color levels. Would you call this table "widgets by color level" or "color levels by widget"?

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"That depends." Rows are usually considered observations, and columns are variables. So I would say widgets by color level in your context. But it really depends on which are your dependent and independent variables (or how you're interpreting the data).

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+1. Beat me by 22 seconds... :-) –  whuber Oct 13 '10 at 20:51
That's a relief. You've been fast on the draw recently. :) –  Shane Oct 13 '10 at 20:55

Of course you can view this table either way by transposing it. Conventionally, in a database rows represent objects and columns contain their attributes, whence this presentation would typically be viewed as a list of widgets, not a list of color levels.

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