Using Inpan

Open data, shape it into a pivot table, and narrow it down. Every change applies at once.

Opening data

Sources lists each dataset and the ways to open it: every row, or a pivot ready to change. Open reads a file from your computer, or drop one on the window. CSV, TSV, JSON and Arrow load into DuckDB, so they must fit its memory, and then pivot, filter and sort like any dataset. Parquet is read in place at any size, for browsing.

A large dataset downloads the first time you pivot, filter or sort it, with progress in the status bar.

Moving around the table

Arrow keys move between cells; Page Up and Page Down move a screen; Home and End reach the ends of a row, and with Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) the first or last row.
First, Last and Go to row sit in the status bar.
Drag a header’s right edge to resize its column, or press Alt+Left/Right; double-click the edge, or press Alt+Backspace, to restore it.
Press a header, or Alt+Down, to open its Column Inspector.

The Grid Inspector

The panel beside the table holds everything about the table as a whole. The ribbon’s Fields, Filters, Sort and Pivot open it on that tab; Clear removes every filter.

Fields

Every column, with its type. Check it to show it, drag it (or Alt+Up/Down) to move it. The sort button cycles ascending, descending and off, with the key’s place beside it; the funnel opens the column’s filter.

Filters

The Filter Builder joins conditions on any columns with All or Any, with one nested group for a mixed rule. Each line reads as a sentence (Where Region is one of West, East, and Sales > 500); the word on the second line, and or or, sets how the group joins. Each condition reads as a pill; press one to edit it, or press F anywhere outside a field to start a new one. Number and date fields show the column’s range as a hint. It applies together with each column’s own filter: a row is kept only if all of them hold. A condition still waiting for a value is skipped.

Sort

Sort keys in order. Rows sort by the first key, then the next for ties; drag a key to change the order. In a pivot, sorting orders each group’s children by name or by a measure, without regrouping.

Pivot

Rows group into a tree, outermost first. Columns split the measures by each value. Measures pair an aggregate (sum, average, min, max, count) with a column. Drag a chip between Rows and Columns. A column with too many values to group, or one that is a measure, is listed with the reason rather than offered.

The Column Inspector

One column’s details: whether it is shown, its sort, its filter, its format and its highlights. A column with few values filters by picking them from a searchable list with counts: keep or drop the picks, and use only to pick one value alone; others take a condition such as contains, between or is empty. Format offers presets such as currency, percent, compact numbers or month dates. Highlight tints the cells that meet a rule; add as many as you like, and the first a value meets wins.

Tree levels

Levels opens or closes every group at once; its menu shows the tree down to one level. Layout chooses Tree, the groups indented in one column, or Columns, each level in its own. Clear pivot, in the Pivot tab, shows every row again.

Limits

Filtering or sorting a large dataset keeps a copy of the matching rows in the browser, up to six million. When more match, Inpan keeps the first six million: the top of the sort (sort the other way for the other end), or the first matches in file order.
Parquet opened from your disk can be viewed and scrolled, but not pivoted, filtered or sorted.
Inpan is a work in progress, built for laptop and desktop browsers.

Where the data comes from

Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider and Drug, 2023: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, public domain.
US flight delays, 2015: US Department of Transportation on-time performance, public domain.
Superstore orders: a widely used sample dataset.