They speak to a need deep inside of us to arrange things in rows and columns.

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Test results are in neat rows and columns and tagged in a way that every other computer can recognise and compare against other appropriate numbers.

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Old-style data came in neatly formatted rows and columns.

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Much of it is multi-structured (often in text format) and does not necessarily flow into neat rows and columns, such as one would find in a traditional database.

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So much data is now available, in such vast scope and minute detail, it is no longer useful to look at numbers neatly laid out in two-dimensional columns and rows, says Gurjeet Singh, co-founder and chief executive of Ayasdi Inc.

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And now these rows and columns are used in spreadsheets processing billions of dollars of trades - often wrongly, as seen in the London Whale incident.

BBC: The mysterious powers of Microsoft Excel

He used a grid of 40 rows and 39 columns to create a table which he filled in with Voynichese syllables.

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