Creating a table field

Some document types contain data that is formatted in a table. Create a table field to enable extraction of data that is displayed in a table.

About this task

This task assumes that you are adding a field as part of teaching your data extraction model. You have a sample document open that contains the table you want to use to create the table field.

Tables can provide a number of corresponding data points. You might need only a small subset of that data for your extraction process. When you define the fields to capture, you need to create a definition for the values of fields that are relevant to your processing goals.

Tables with well-defined borders (clear gridlines), multi-line headers, and multi-line rows are supported. Table extraction has some limitations in the table summary and for complex tables. For more information about Document Processing table limitations, see IBM® Automation Document Processing limitations and Supported and partially supported tables.

You can see the details of table detection improvements in Table detection improvements in IBM Automation Document Processing 22.0.1.

Procedure

To create a table field:

  1. From the Add fields tab, click Add field.
  2. Enter a value for the Field display name. You can set this field in any language, using any Unicode character.
  3. Enter a value for the Field symbolic name. This name is used to reference this project in the code, and cannot be changed. It cannot have spaces or special characters.
  4. In Value format, select Table.
  5. In Field type, you can select an existing field type if there is one. In this case, the rest of the options to define your table become read-only, because you cannot edit the attributes of an existing field type.

    However, in most cases, no existing field type is available. In this case, leave that option empty, and use the next settings in this dialog to define the table field attributes for your new field. A new table field is created automatically when you save the table field.

  6. Enter alternative names, or aliases for your field. In a document, the same field can be identified by different names, case, or phrasing, for example Purchase order number, PO number, and PO#. In the Alias section, you can add any alternative name that might come up for your field.
  7. In Table headers, define the table columns that you want to capture in your application. You should capture only the columns that are important for your runtime applications, so it might not be necessary to capture all columns in the table. Some columns might not appear in all sample documents, or some might not be needed by runtime applications. For each table header that you need, enter the following information:
    1. Enter a display name and a symbolic name for the column. This name does not have to be the same as the actual text of the column header in your samples.
    2. Enter the field type for the column, for example String, Date, Numeric, Decimal, and so on.
    3. Specify whether the value is required and/or sensitive.

    Click Add table header to capture all the necessary columns. If you decide that you do not need a table header that you created, you can use the trash can icon to delete it.

  8. If your table contains summary information that applies only to a single column, select This table contains summary data. This is for items like Sub-total, Sales tax, Shipping, or Grand total that often appear at the end of a table, but only apply to the rightmost column of the table. If you do have summary table rows, then for each one enter the following information:
    1. Enter a display name and a symbolic name for the summary field.
    2. Enter the field type for the summary field, for example String, Date, Numeric, Decimal, and so on.
    3. Specify whether the value is required and/or sensitive.
  9. If your table contains additional, non-summary information in a table cell, select This table contains additional data. If you do have additional cells, then for each one enter the following information:
    1. Enter a display name and a symbolic name for the additional field.
    2. Enter the field type for the additional field, for example String, Date, Numeric, Decimal, and so on.
    3. Specify whether the value is required and/or sensitive.
  10. Make sure to add all of the table headers, summary headers, and additional headers for your field before saving the table. It is not possible to add, remove, or edit these attributes after the table is created. When you are sure that you are done, click Add field.

Results

After you enter all of the table information and save your table, you see the table and all of its headers appear in a hierarchical form in the Add fields tab. The table rows can be collapsed or expanded.

What to do next

After you add your table field, rerun the sample document so that the model can learn the field details from your updated field. When you open the sample after you rerun the document, you can check the values that are extracted from the table field that you created.