Concepts
Choosing a Table method
You can choose from among the following options for extracting tables:
Overview of table methods
method | based on | description | comments |
---|---|---|---|
NLP Table | large language models (LLM)s | Extracts a table based on your prompt to an LLM. | Low code, doesn’t require an anchor. Slowest table method. |
Fixed Table | layout | Extracts tables with a fixed number and layout of columns. | Faster than NLP Table method. |
Text Table | layout | Extracts tables based on column coordinates in inches. | Fastest table method. |
Features supported
method | multiple pages | merged cells | variable column formatting | checkboxes in cells | Tables-in tables, labeled rows, and other complex formatting |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fixed Table | ✅Ignores repeating column headings. | ✅ If you specify the Stop parameter, Sensible populates “empty” spanned cells with the spanned value. For an example, see Merged cell example. | ❌ | ✅ If you specify the Stop parameter, Sensible returns the selection status for checkboxes in table cells as “[true]” or “[false]“. | ❌Use Sections as an alternative |
Text Table | ✅Supported if you specify the Stop parameter | ❌Sensible returns the first merged cell’s value, and returns subsequent spanned cells as nulls. | ❌ | ❌ | ❌Use Sections as an alternative |
NLP Table | ✅ To troubleshoot intervening non-table text, use the Page Span Threshold parameter. | Indeterminate. Usually supported without additional prompting. | ✅ | Indeterminate. | Indeterminate.Use Sections as an alternative. |
Note: The Table method is deprecated. To duplicate this method’s function, use the NLP Table method and set the Rewrite Table parameter to false. For information about the Table method, see (Deprecated) Table method.