To organize data in tables and charts that are intended principally as published sources from which others will collect data, investigate which of these two principles is most commonly used for your data source and topic. One approach is to organize the information in the same order as found on the original data collection instrument, making it straightforward to find specific variables by consulting the codebook, questionnaire, or other form used to collect the data.

Another possibility often used in periodic reports on a specific topic is to maintain the same order of items across years or across geographic units. Many Census and NCHS reports use the latter approach.