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composite family

table-as-chart

Formatted table with visual cues — heatmap cells, sparklines, bars.

Tables with embedded visual encoding: cell colour by value, mini bars or sparklines per row. Bridges between "we need exact numbers" and "show me the pattern".

When to use

When readers need exact values AND a visual pattern (financial reports, league tables).

When NOT to use

Pure data dump (use a real table) or pure visual story (use a real chart).

Rhetorical roles

  • compare
  • rank

Variants & related

Required primitives

  • has_data_labels

Optional primitives

  • has_legend

Common anti-patterns

  • chart-as-table

Disambiguation rules

  • Table layout (rows of values) with at least one visual encoding (cell colour, mini-chart).
  • If purely numeric without visual cues, should_be_kind=table.