Recommended data tables and rows: get the data you want even quicker

[dominik.cholewski]

Overview

Sometimes, it can be a bit daunting getting the data you want into tables. Thankfully, dashdash has got you covered with our recommended tables and rows . They let you get the most common points into your spreadsheet with just two to three clicks, which means you can get to analyzing the data even quicker. What’s more - it’s great if you find yourself repetitively needing the same information. You’ll find them for most functions that return a JSON object - just click on the data explorer icon in the given cell, and in the side panel you’ll see a host of options.

Accessing recommended data tables and rows

In this article, we’ll walk you through the key differences between the two.

Recommended Tables

Recommended tables automatically retrieve the most pertinent information from the JSON data and insert them into a table. These are great when you use one of our custom integration functions and what to retrieve some of the most common data points.

Depending on the function, you’ll see one or more recommended tables to choose from - it all depends on what data you want to see. Thankfully, each one has a very good description of what data you can expect to return.

Table types

Once you select a table, you’ll just need to choose how that table is supposed to behave.

Use UPDATE + INSERT if, each time you execute the function, you’d like existing rows to be updated and new ones to be added.

UPDATE + INSERT example

Use INSERT if, each time you execute the function, you want the data to be appended to the table. Great if you want a constant log.

INSERT example

Use OVERWRITE if, each time you execute the function, you want all the data in the table to be rewritten. Really handy if you’re doing benchmarking

OVERWRITE example

Rows

Sometimes, you don’t need a whole table of data - just some extra information from the response for a single element. And that’s where data rows come in. They enrich a singular row with some of the most popular data points that we see users want. This can be, for example, the latitude and longitude of a place, the email and confidence score for a person, or the phone number for a company.

Data rows in action

Note: Sometimes it may seem as though the data row didn’t work (returns a blank cell). However, this is most likely due to there not being any data available for that query.

Blank data row cell example

In this example, no data is returned for the Facebook social media profile, as the company does not have one. However, for Twitter and LinkedIn, we see their handles.

Summary

So, with recommended data tables and rows; you don’t need to spend time traversing JSON objects to get the data you want (and repetitively at that!). Instead, use that time to create even coolers and more insightful apps. You’ve got the tools - now it’s time to get building !