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### 5.3 The data area

Begins with an 014 character, followed by sets of cell-definition macros for each row, followed by column-widths, column-printers, default-printer, and header-row. Then there’s the global parameters (file-format ID, numrows, numcols) and the local variables (specifying SES mode for the buffer, etc.).

When a SES file is loaded, first the numrows and numcols values are loaded, then the entire data area is `eval`ed, and finally the local variables are processed.

You can edit the data area, but don’t insert or delete any newlines except in the local-variables part, since SES locates things by counting newlines. Use `C-x C-e` at the end of a line to install your edits into the spreadsheet data structures (this does not update the print area, use, e.g., `C-c C-l` for that).

The data area is maintained as an image of spreadsheet data structures that area stored in buffer-local variables. If the data area gets messed up, you can try reconstructing the data area from the data structures:

`C-c M-C-l`

  (`ses-reconstruct-all`).