Organizing data is an important ste

Organizing data is an important step in analyzing any set of data.
Sometimes, the data is numerical (as we would expect), and other
times, it might be of a more visual nature. For example, consider the problem
of determining the shortest route to take from a given point to a destination.
The way in which we list the routes—organizing them by order
of proximity—can be a significant factor in selecting the best route. In
mathematics, some problems present an excessive amount of data. How
this data gets organized can often determine whether or not the problem
can be solved. A table is one way to organize the data in a problem. In
many problems involving the guess-and-test strategy, for example, a table
provides an excellent way of keeping track of the data and determining
whether the next guess should be a larger or smaller one. An organized list
is often used instead of a table, and may be a bit less formal. Both the list
and the table perform the same function—that is, they are used to keep
track of data in the problem and lead the way to its solution. In some problems,
the list itself may be the answer to the question that was aske