Tables and records

A table holds one kind of thing your business keeps track of: customers, orders, products, invoices. Each row of a table is a record, such as one customer or one order. Each column is a field, such as the customer's name or the order's date. A record in one table can link to a record in another, so an order points at its customer instead of copying the customer's address. Fields have a section of their own: Fields.

Tables live in a database. Every workspace has a database of its own, kept in Sterodata. You can also connect a PostgreSQL or MySQL database you already run. Its tables are read live, and you cannot add, change or delete their records from Sterodata (see Integrations).

Where your tables are

Choose Data in the sidebar. Each database is a tab at the top of the list, and a connected database carries a cloud icon. Under the tabs are the tables, views and summaries of the database you picked. Click one to open it in the grid.

• New offers Table, Import CSV (a new table from a file), Dynamic table and Summary. The last two read other tables: see Views and summaries.
• When a database holds eight or more items, a Find a table box appears above the list. Type part of a name: Enter opens the first match, and Esc empties the box.
• The ⋮ beside New offers Select tables, to delete several tables at once, and Trash, where deleted tables and fields wait.
• The table's name at the top of the grid opens its menu, with Share view, Rename table, Import data and Delete table.

Folders

Tables that an integration creates for you are kept in a folder named after the integration, marked with a plug icon. Your own tables sit at the top of the list, outside any folder. Click a folder's name to fold or unfold it. The folder holding the table you have open always stays unfolded, and every folder opens while you type in Find a table.

An integration's folder has a ⋮ menu: Refresh all fetches every one of its tables again, and the other entry opens the integration's settings.

You cannot make a folder yourself or move a table into one. Only tables an integration creates go into folders, and those folders sit inside a folder called api_endpoints.

Who can do what

Adding records, changing them, deleting them and changing a table's fields are each granted separately. If a button described in these pages is missing for you, you have not been given that access. See Access and permissions.

In this section

• Create, rename and delete a tableMake a new table, give it another name, and delete it. A deleted table waits in the trash for 30 days.
• Work with recordsAdd a record, change it in the grid, open it whole, and delete records, with Undo for a few seconds after.
• Copy and paste rowsCopy cells out of the grid, paste rows in from Excel or Google Sheets, what a paste may add, its limits, and how to undo it.
• AttachmentsAttach photos, PDFs and documents to a record, preview them without downloading, and turn a column of web links into stored files.
• Search, filter and sortFind records by a word, keep only the records that meet your conditions, and put them in the order you need.
• Group records and read the totalsGroup the grid by a field, by part of a date or by a field of a linked record, and read the totals Sterodata adds up under each column.
• Hide fields and save the layoutShow only the columns you need, put them in your order, and make your filter, sort, grouping and columns what everyone sees.
• Import recordsBring rows from an xlsx, csv or tsv file, or pasted from a spreadsheet, into a table, see what each column becomes before anything is written, and update rows that exist.
• Export recordsDownload what the grid shows as a CSV or Excel file, from a table or from a list on a page, and the 50,000-row limit.
• Who created and changed a recordEvery record of a Sterodata table keeps who created it, when, who changed it last and when, shown in your own time.
• The trashDeleted tables and fields wait in their database's trash for 30 days, with who deleted them, and come back with everything they held.