Tabular is a concept that can appear as an adjective or a verb. When the term comes from the Latin word tabularis, it is an adjective referring to something that looks like a table. For example: “That tabular furniture would be very useful in the study”, “Yesterday I bought a new tabular device on top of which supplies can be placed”, “The terrain is characterized by its tabular relief”.
The notion may also have its etymological origin in tabulāre. In this case, tabulate is a verb that refers to expressing data through tables. This action is common in various fields, including computing.
Suppose a journalist conducts an investigation into the expenses of a state agency. In this way, you access a large number of numbers, dates, etc. that you should dump in your note. To organize the data and facilitate understanding, the journalist decides to tabulate the information. So, develop a table with three columns: expense, date and concept. In each column, start breaking down the data. When the reader views the table, therefore, she can easily access the information. In some computer programs, the tabulation of the data is very important, since it allows the creation of graphs and different analyzes of the information. If a user uses tabular information in a spreadsheet calculation, he can draw pie charts or bar charts with data. This type of visual presentations complement the figures and help to assimilate them. It is worth mentioning that, although current programs allow the creation of tables automatically and with a few clicks, it is always possible to tabulate the information manually, using the appropriate key (generally known as TAB) to accommodate each data of the desired column. . The main difference between the two implementations is that in the second there is no dividing line or frame for the table, but rather the goal is simply to structure the fields in an orderly manner. This method may seem precarious, but it is useful even today, when the lines and decorations usually associated with computer-generated tables are not needed; For example, in an internal company document or a draft for personal use, manually tabulating the data can be much more convenient and easier than creating a table. In addition, compatibility is much greater this way, since not all programs interpret tables in the same way and this can lead to visual disturbances. It is known as tabular relief, in turn, to the elevations that certain strata of the earth adopt that have the appearance of tables. It has its origin in sedimentary rocks of little antiquity that did not resist orogenic efforts (orogenesis is, according to geology, the process by which the earth’s crust shortens and bends into an elongated surface, as a result of a push).
It is possible to find this type of relief in sedimentary basins wide enough so that the layers are distributed horizontally. In addition, it is possible to observe a lithological variety (of the structure and composition of the rocks) that includes clays, marls and limestones, among other types of rocks, which behave differently against erosive agents. Of the forms that tabular relief can take, the simplest is known as a páramo, a flat, barren expanse of land, usually more than 1,000 meters above sea level. Among its main characteristics we can mention the fact that it is located on calcareous soils, with very little vegetation, constant winds, little hydrography and a considerable thermal amplitude.
