---
title: "Adding column descriptions"
slug: "adding-column-descriptions"
updated: 2023-01-26T07:59:16Z
published: 2023-01-26T07:59:16Z
canonical: "userguide.dataclassroom.com/adding-column-descriptions"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://userguide.dataclassroom.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Adding column descriptions

Ever had the situation where your column headers are long lines of text?

![](https://cdn.document360.io/62f8f41e-e041-42c4-b9bc-8ae1eb45d064/Images/Documentation/image-1674719297166.png)

This typically happens with surveys, where the **entire question** has become the **heading in the column**. You'll see DataClassroom shows a warning in the Import stage of the flow diagram.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/62f8f41e-e041-42c4-b9bc-8ae1eb45d064/Images/Documentation/image-1674719453093.png)

This makes the table not just harder to read, but also causes problems as:

- your column headings are effectively your **variable names** for analysis, and
- they are also used as the **axis labels** for graphs.

### Swap the heading into the column description

The solution, which also allows you to keep the longer text, is to click on the **edit column header** pencil icon and hit the **Swap** button, which moves the long text into the **column description** and allows you to enter a short version for use as a variable and axis label.

![](https://cdn.document360.io/62f8f41e-e041-42c4-b9bc-8ae1eb45d064/Images/Documentation/image-1674719791517.png)

This now means that the description can be seen from the table view like this:

![](https://cdn.document360.io/62f8f41e-e041-42c4-b9bc-8ae1eb45d064/Images/Documentation/image-1674719888491.png)

### Or just add a description

You can of course just add the description to existing data for your own purposes of keeping notes.