Tables Management
The table functionality enables users to declare a region of the spreadsheet that will be synced with a relational table in the underlying database. DataSpread adds a context menu to deal with tables as shown in the following figure. We will talk about the operations that a user can perform using this context menu in the sections below. All of the table operations act on a selected region.
Users can create a relational table from a collection of spreadsheet cells. To do this, first select an area that has data organized as rows and columns as shown in the figure above. Choose the Create Table option from the right click menu; this prompts the user for a table name. After entering a table name, DataSpread creates a table in the underlying database and links the table to the selected region.
Linking a table implies displaying data from an existing table in the underlying database to the sheet in the selected region. To declare a region on the spreadsheet as "linked" with a table from the underlying database, select an area on the spreadsheet and choose the link option from the right click menu. Selecting the link option brings up a dialog to pick a table to be associated with the selected area. Note that if the table to be associated with the area is larger than the area, only a portion of the table (rows and columns) will be displayed.
Select any cell from the table and choose the unlink operation to remove the association between the table area in the sheet and the table from the underlying database. Notice here that the table in the database is not deleted, this action only removes the link between the sheet and the table.
To add rows to a table, select the cells just below a linked table that you would like to add and choose the Add Tuples option. To remove a row, select it on the table and choose Delete Tuples option.
To add columns to a table, select cells just right of a linked table that you would like to add and choose the Add Columns option. To delete a column, select it on the table and choose the Delete Columns option.