Read Excel files
Description
The Read Excel Files activity extracts tabular data from Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx format). It supports reading data from a specific sheet, interpreting headers, and can fetch files either from the output of a previous activity or directly from the workflow directory based on your configuration.
This activity is essential for workflows involving uploaded reports, forms, or structured data sources prepared in Excel.
Use this activity to:
- Ingest Excel files submitted via form or upload
- Parse structured data for transformation or validation
- Load data from spreadsheets for further automation
Use case: A manager uploads a performance report in Excel format every week. This activity reads the sheet named “Weekly Summary”, interprets the first row as headers, and passes the data to the next step for KPI evaluation.
Input
Type | Description |
---|---|
Files | Excel files (.xlsx ) provided either by a prior activity or from the workflow directory. |
Output
Output Type | Format | Description |
---|---|---|
Data | Table | Parsed Excel data as tabular output. |
Configuration Fields
Field Name | Description |
---|---|
Read From Previous Activity | Toggle switch that determines the file source:
|
Input File Pattern | (Visible only when Read From Previous Activity is Disabled) Defines the file name or pattern (e.g., data_*.xlsx ) used to locate Excel files in the workflow directory. |
Sheet Name | The name of the worksheet to extract data from. Only the specified sheet will be read. |
Has Header Record | Determines if the first row of the sheet is treated as column headers:
|
Only
.xlsx
files are supported. If the specified sheet is not found, the activity may fail unless error handling is applied downstream.
Sample Input
Not Applicable
Sample Configuration
Field | Value |
---|---|
Read From Previous Activity | Enabled |
Sheet Name | Weekly Report |
Has Header Record | Enabled |
If
Read From Previous Activity
is set to Disabled, setInput File Pattern
to a value likeperformance_*.xlsx
.
Sample Output
Name | Department | Score | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Alice | HR | 85 | Passed |
Bob | Sales | 78 | Passed |
Charlie | IT | 62 | Pending |
The output will include all rows from the specified sheet, excluding the header row if
Has Header Record
is enabled.