The summary table is a nice and quick tool to get an overview of all columns in a data table. However, it lacks a few features which is why we end up re-inventing the wheel with adding a data function and subsequent visualization set-up. Many of the missing features are actually provided by the data in analysis fly-out (such as data type or a small histogram) but only for a single column at a time.
It would be great to have the details from the data in analysis fly-out in an upgraded summary table as a native feature to avoid the hassle with adding data functions or action mods. In this context it would be great to also allow custom aggregations such as already requested in many other ideas (https://ideas.spotfire.com/ideas/SPF-I-5011, https://ideas.spotfire.com/ideas/TS-I-8227, https://ideas.spotfire.com/ideas/TS-I-5275, https://ideas.spotfire.com/ideas/TS-I-7346).
Attached is a screen shot that compares the data in analysis fly-out, the summary table and our current custom data function where I manually added mini histograms from the data in analysis fly-out as columns (for categorical columns a row count pareto for most and least common categories would be suitable).
Hello Mark,
thanks you for this thoughtful idea that aligns very well with our broader goals for Spotfire. I absolutely agree that the summary table could evolve into something more dynamic.