Tables: Convert text to a data table

Use the Tables: Convert text to a data table to break up text into a data table by tab, line, paragraph, or a custom delimiter.

This action is great for converting highly structured text in unique file types we may not support yet.

How to configure this action

This action converts text into a data table using row delimiters and column delimiters. The delimiters are the characters that indicate where the start or end of a column or row should be. Delimiters can be text or characters, like ,, -, or Address:

For example, with the following text:

Fruit,Price,Quantity;Apple,10,5;Banana,40,8;Pear,20,2

• Set the column delimiter to , to define where a column ends. In the example, Fruit, Price, and Quantity, are separated by ,. This is to say that for the first row, Fruit is in one column, Price is in the next column, and Quantity the next.

• Set the row delimiter to ; to define where a row ends. In the example, Fruit,Price,Quantity and Apple,10,5 are separated by ;. This is to say that Fruit,Price,Quantity are three columns in one row, and Apple,10,5 are three columns in the next row.

Given the column and row delimiters, the text above is converted into the following table.

Refer to our Workflow System Limits when creating extremely large data tables.

Fields for this action

• Text

  • Enter the block of text to split into a data table.

• Column delimiter

  • Enter the character or text that will separate each column, such as a comma.
  • If blank, the text will output to one column.
  • For special characters like a new line,
    • Enter \n for a new line/line break.
    • Enter \t for tab.
    • Enter \p for paragraph.

• Row delimiter

  • Enter the character or text that will separate each row, such as a semi-colon.
  • If blank, the text will output to one row.
  • For special characters like a new line,
    • Enter \n for a new line/line break.
    • Enter \t for tab.
    • Enter \p for paragraph.

• Use first row as column headers:

  • Select True or False from the drop down to set if the text in the first row is the column headers.
    • Select True to use the first row of text as the column names.
    • Select False or leave blank to put the first row in the table and use automatically numbered columns.
  • 💡   Tip: Column names should not contain line breaks or non-alphanumeric characters, including but not limited to ! % & () * ;

• Output field name

  • Enter a name for the field in which the data table ID should be saved

What will this output?

This action will output a data table converted from source text. The name of the output field will be the Output field name defined during configuration.

Output fields for this action

• Output field name

  • A field with the new data table ID.