Visualizing and Inspecting Large Datasets with Tableplots

More and more researchers study large data sources. Solely through their size alone, getting insight into the data in these sources is difficult. A visualization method, commonly referred to as a tableplot, was found extremely useful for this purpose. A tableplot is a method that is able to display the aggregated distribution patterns of a dozen of variables in one single figure. We demonstrate that information on data quality and the presence and selectivity of missing data is obtained. In our opinion, the tableplot is an very valuable addition to the standard set of statistical tools commonly used for data exploration, processing, and analysis. A tool to create tableplots has been implemented as a package for the open source statistical software environment R and made publically available.