Application of Non-Perturbative Techniques for Tabular Data

Abstract

In the present chapter we discuss the application of two techniques to protect a table or a (hierarchical or linked) set of tables against disclosure, namely table redesign and secondary cell suppression. We start our discussion by considering a single table with its marginals, and then consider the more general case of hierarchical and linked tables. In fact the single table case is the one that has been given most attention in the literature, as it is the more basic one. Increasingly, however, attention is being paid to the hierarchical and linked table case. Since this generalization has not been settled at the time of writing we do not dwell very extensively on this subject.

Most statistical tables are parchingly dry in the reading; not so in the the present case, however, where the reader is flooded with the whole pipes, barrels, quarts and gills of good gin and good cheer.

—HERMAN MELVILLE, Moby-Dick.