Description
This activity is used to read the contents of a specified table. Excel, Google Sheets and CSV tables are supported.
When adding this activity to a workflow, an 'Assign value to variable' action block connected to this block will also appear. The result of reading operation will be saved to this variable. That being said, this variable stores the table contents and provides a visual representation of the table data.
However, using the 'Assign value to variable' activity is not strictly necessary in this case. It is safe to delete this block and handle the result any other way. For example, it is possible to connect the 'Read table' activity to the 'For each row' activity and use the Save the previous step result option.
One more important thing to remember: in case your table is currently open in any desktop application, do not forget to close it. Otherwise, Studio will not be able to get access to the file and execute the activity.
Parameters
The set of parameters depends on the chosen option: Excel, Google Sheets or CSV.
Read table from is the general parameter which defines what kind of table you are going to read. It is required.
The Read table from parameter and the available options
Excel
Reading an Excel table works the same way as the separate 'Read Excel table' activity. Read about it in this article. Read Excel file
Google Sheets
If we choose to read a table from Google Sheets, we will see the following parameters.
The first one here is Google account. It is required to connect the account where the table is stored. If you have not done this yet, this is what you will see here.
This message shows that the Google account is not connected
Click the link in this message. The settings menu will open. Here you will be able to login to your Google account and connect it. Click the 'Authenticate' button to do it.
The 'Services' menu where you can login to your account
Once it is done, you should see this message. It indicates that you can use the table stored in your account.
This message shows that your Google account is connected
The next parameter is Spreadsheet Id. It is used to specify the table itself. Pay attention to the tooltip that appears when hovering your cursor over the input field: it is only required to input the ID of the table, not the whole link. This is a required parameter.
For example, if the link is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11sw2l2a6b1n2l8aDP_E9_SjAV/edit#gid=0, then the ID is 11sw2l2a6b1n2l8aDP_E9_SjAV.
Spreadsheet Id parameter
Tooltip showing how to input the table ID
The last parameter is Range. It defines what part of the table needs to be read. There is also a tooltip for it. This is a required parameter.
Range parameter and the tooltip
CSV
The only parameter here is Path which lets you specify the needed .csv table file. Use the 'Pick' option to choose the file using Explorer. This is a required parameter.
Studio Pro supports auto recognition of such delimiters as ,, ; and tab. Regardless of the chosen delimiter, the data from the table will be read in the exact same way.
Path parameter
Results
In this case we used the 'Assign value to variable' activity to save and display the results.
Excel
The representation of Excel tables data is described here. Read Excel file
Google Sheets
An example of a read Google Sheets table
CSV
An example of a read CSV table