Producing Effective Tables and Figures/Deciding whether to use tables or figures

Deciding Whether to Use Figures or Tables

Whether you use a figure or a table in any given situation should depend on what data you have to present and on what you want your reader(s) to focus on. This often comes down to whether you want your reader(s) to focus on a pattern, or a trend, or whether you want them to focus on very specific details (such as the absolute numbers generated by experiments).

To help further, Table 1 (below, note the clear title!) should allow you to match your data to the most appropriate option for displaying that data.

Table 1: When to use tables and figures based on the different types of data you may wish to present.

Use A Table When You Want To	Use A Figure When You Want To
Compare data values among related items or groups	Summarize trends and patterns
Display specific numerical values (or many data values)	Show these trends and patterns when these are more important than the specific numerical values
Highlight a Yes/No effect (or a Present/Absent effect)	Show explanations of procedures (methods) or responses (e.g. images)