Column Tools
Column Tools are ideal for automating data extraction from multiple rows of a table.
At a high level, Column Tools work by looking for the names of column headers, regex occurrences within the table, or by column index number. Once the Tool finds a matching column header or arrives at the designated index number in any table in a document, they extract all rows for that column and assigns it to a Schema Field, creating 1 record per row. This is populated as a list and can be combined with other Column Tools to form a table in a Subschema.
To create a Column Tool:
- Under Pattern Studio, click on “Kits”
- Create a Kit
- Give your Kit a name and associate it with a schema
- You may need to add another Kit that is associated with a Subschema. You can do so using the "Add Kit" button on the left
- Click "Add Tool" and select "Column Tool"
- Enter a “Column String”. You can also identify a column by its index or by "regular expression", which is detailed further in Text Tools
- Click "Save Tool"
- Repeat this process for as many Fields as you need to extract via Column Tools
- Note that you cannot mix both Column Tools and Row Tools in the same Kit
- You have now automated data extraction for those columns!
Upon returning to the application home page and processing the document with the pattern group fully configured, we can observe extraction performance and make adjustments as necessary. Note that we can navigate to the Pattern page within Data Inbox that corresponds to the Pattern we just populated to observe the results. If the schema you selected for the Kit was a subschema, then navigate to the Sub-Pattern item underneath the Pattern name in the navigation bar:
Of course, we can also view this information in Document Viewer as well.
- You now have automated column extraction!
