The table used in this section

All six Data Modification tutorials use the same small product list. Rows and columns are numbered from 1, and row 1 is the header. Every result shown was produced by Tabulizer itself, in step 6 (Preview) of the online Table Wizard.

Three ways to add rows and columns

Method 1: a Data Addition rule

Open the Table Wizard, go to step 5 (Modifications) and find Add/Remove Elements. Click Add new Data Addition, then choose what to add:

• Empty Row or Empty Column: a blank row or column, handy as a spacer or as a place for content you add with other rules.
• Custom Row or Custom Column (Type your values): the wizard shows one box for each column of your table (or each row, for a column). Type the values you want; boxes you leave empty become empty cells.

Then choose the Insert Row Position (or Insert Column Position). It is the place the new row takes: 1st makes it the first row, 2nd puts it between the current rows 1 and 2, and Last adds it at the end of the table. 2nd to Last to 5th to Last count back from the end, so they keep working when the number of rows changes.

The rule above adds a totals line at the end:

What the Table Element and Element Range do here

For an addition, the element and range do not choose where the row goes; the position does that. They decide whether the rule runs. Leave them at Table and all to always add the row. A condition such as ROWS > 5 adds it only when the table has more than 5 rows, which is useful for a totals line on a table that is sometimes almost empty.

Method 2: the addrow and addcolumn functions

In step 5, click Add new Data Modification, set Function Type to Built-in/Existing one and pick addrow or addcolumn as the Function Name. The wizard shows what the function does and how to write its arguments.

The arguments are one line with three parts separated by colons:

[position]:[delimiter]:[values]

Examples

Addition rule or function?

Modification functions run before all other data rules. A row added with addrow is therefore treated like the rest of your data: a date format rule on column 5 also formats its date, and a replacement rule also changes its text. A Data Addition runs after them and is left as you typed it. Choose the function when the new row should look like the others, and the addition when it should stay exactly as entered.

Method 3: a header row for database data

A database query returns data rows only; the column names are not part of the result. There are two ways to give such a table a header row.

The Header row option (recommended)

In the back end, open Tabulizer › Data Sources and edit a data source of type Database Table/Query, External Database or Form Entries. Tick Add header row ("Add a header row when results are not empty"). Then click + Add header column once for each column the query returns, type the labels, and drag them into the right order. The header row is added only when the query returns rows, so an empty result never turns into a table with nothing but a header.

A header row in the query itself

Before this option existed, the usual way was a UNION that puts the labels in front of the data:

(SELECT "Full Name", "Username", "Email")
UNION ALL
(SELECT `name`, `username`, `email` FROM `#__users` WHERE `block` = 0)

This still works. #__ stands for your site's table prefix. Use UNION ALL rather than UNION, because UNION also removes duplicate rows. The database does not promise to return the label row first either, so if the order matters, prefer the Header row option.

Common questions