Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Column groups and row groups

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

In tables and matrices, a column group or row group usually refers to a subset of columns or rows, respectively. Short names or notational names include col group or colgroup, and row group or rowgroup. They can have varying uses depending on context:

  • In mathematics, a partitioned matrix is an interpretation of a matrix as being broken down into submatrices which may be more precisely referred to as a collection of row groups and column groups
  • In web development, colgroup is a standard HTML attribute and an HTML event attribute, for example used for color formatting of entire columns in HTML tables. The colgroup tag acts as a "parent container of one or more <col> elements". Rowgroup is another HTML attribute.
  • In reporting (including business reporting, data reporting and financial reporting), colgroups and rowgroups can be used for constructing tables and matrices which dynamically adjusts the size of their columns and rows, respectively, by displaying the set of columns in the colgroup set (which again is a subset of the underlying data).
  • In reporting, colgroups and rowgroups can also be used for grouping of collapsible categories in the presentation of a table (with or without aggregation for the groups). One example of a use case may be if a table contains a lot of detailed information, but there is a want to display summarizing information of groups in the same table.
Watch videos about Column groups and row groupsExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Column groups and row groups, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.