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Extract Data from Tables

Many document types include tables to organize information. Appian can extract this information efficiently and present it in a reconciliation task to confirm it did so properly. If a user finds that the table was incorrectly detected, they can now manually draw the boundaries to extract the information as intended.

This page describes how to reconcile data extracted from tables, as well as the steps to draw a table boundary for extraction in case the service doesn't parse the data in the table correctly.

Reconcile table data

You'll reconcile table data as part of the overall doc extraction reconciliation task.

  1. Under the relevant field in the left-pane, click Select Table.
  2. Select your table and identify the header row.
  3. Choose which field in each column header corresponds to the column in the table.
  4. Remove rows that don't contain actual table data, described below.
  5. Verify your data is correct.
  6. Click OK.
images/doc_extraction/table-reconciliation.gif

Tip:  As users submit document extraction tasks, Appian will learn the aliases for your tables' column headers. It can then use the learnings to automatically extract table values, reducing the need for human reconciliation.

Table actions

When manually extracting table data, users can take a variety of actions by clicking on the menu icon next to a column or row.

For columns, users can:

  • Duplicate a column
  • Insert a column to the left
  • Insert a column to the right
  • Remove a column
images/doc_extraction/column_controls.png

For rows, users can:

  • Duplicate a row
  • Insert a row above
  • Insert a row below

Users can also remove individual rows by clicking the close icon on the right side of each row

images/doc_extraction/row_controls.png

Create a table manually

When extracting data from documents, you may find that some tables aren't correctly identified. Or, when the table is identified correctly, the table's columns or rows were split incorrectly. When this happens, Appian has trouble automatically extracting the information and presenting it in a reconciliation task.

Rather than manually fixing this data field by field, Appian lets you draw the boundaries of a table for more precise data extraction. After you draw the table boundaries, Appian will extract data from the selected location. The table reconciliation task shows a more accurate picture of the data.

Note:  You'll need to manually draw these tables in each document where they aren't correctly identified.

To draw table boundaries in a reconciliation task:

  1. Under the relevant field in the left-pane, click Select Table.
  2. In the Select Table Data window, review the table to determine if the document extraction service identified it correctly.
  3. If the table, its rows, or its columns weren't correctly identified, move your cursor to the top left boundary of the table.
  4. Press and hold the Shift key and click and drag your cursor across the table to cover the entire table area.
  5. When you reach the lower right boundary of the table area, release your mouse and the Shift key.
  6. Click NEXT. If you can't click the NEXT button, a valid table wasn't detected. Try re-selecting the table area.
images/doc_extraction/draw-manual-table.gif

Review the updated data:

  1. Select whether the Table has column headers or the Table does not have headers.
  2. Confirm the data extracted from the table is correct. If it's not, choose which field in each column header corresponds to the column in the table.
  3. Remove rows that don't contain actual table data.
  4. Verify your data is correct.
  5. Click OK.

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