advanced text/html formating export to csv

rblack · Post by **rblack** » Thu May 08, 2008 3:14 pm

hello,
I have Macro Sheduller 10 full and WebRecorder and i try to export table to CSV using the ExtractTable but the exported text is not comma separated but its just the text from the inside without any separation.

How can i make the each cell of the table separated with semicolon (;) or inverted commas "" ?

Or how can i extract the html code only wit the tags TABLE and TD to be extracted, without any styles, classes or parameters inside them?

Bob Hansen · Post by **Bob Hansen** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:35 pm

Not sure what you are doing, but if trying to get a table from a web page, if you use Firefox, there is a great AddOn, Table2Clipboard that may be helpful. Once in the clipboard, you can use MAcro Scheduler to paste the contents of the clipboard wherever you want it. You can also define the separators that you want between columns and rows.

AddOn available at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1852

Mozilla applications allow to select rows and columns from a table simply pressing Control key and picking rows/columns with left mouse button.
Normally, the selection can be copied to clipboard but the original table disposition is lost making ugly results when you paste the text on datasheet applications (eg excel).
But, with this AddOn, if you want to paste data in Microsoft Excel on OpenOffice Calc with correct disposition simply use Table2Clipboard.
Pasting in plain text editors is also supported as CSV file (but you can change rows and columns separators from option dialog)

PS, this AddOn also works in Thunderbird.

rblack · Post by **rblack** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:59 pm

the newest version of firefox (2.0.0.14) sux - it hangs all the time and makes me want to destroy my computer. What is more - macro sheduller doesnt support automated login in sites and so on with mozilla (i mean with hIE.dll). I need a stable full automated solution.

I want to save the html in CSV but the way the ExtractTable from hIE saves it to my drive is not good: there is no separation sign: neither coma, or "" so i cannot do anything with this text.

The sites which i extract the tables are very large so i cannot save the whole page and then convert it.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:54 pm

ExtractTable uses commas as the column delimiters, double quotes (") around each value, with each row on a new line. So CSV basically.

If you have specified the right table and assuming your table does have multiple rows and columns (TRs and TDs) then you should see CSV data resulting. If not, you probably have the wrong table, or perhaps the data is inside only one TD?