HXL has a selection of attributes for distinguishing sex and age. For sex, it has +f for female, +m for male, and +i for non-gender-binary; for broad age groups, it has +infants, +children, +adolescents, +adults, and +elderly. You can also use +total to distinguish a column that sums up the others. Here are some examples, using #affected +idps (number of internally displaced people) as a base:

#affected +idps +f +children number of internally-displaced girls
#affected +idps +m +adults number of internally-displaced men
#affected +idps +total total number of internally-displaced people

Sometimes, you will want to include specific age groups in addition to the broad ones in the HXL core. To do that, create your own attribute with the starting with “age_” followed by the first number, an underscore, and a second number. For example, to tag girls age 5-12, you could use #affected +f +children +age_5_12. Note that it’s still important to include the general +children attribute.