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Heuristic Algorithm for Recovering a Physical Structure of Spreadsheet Header

  • Viacheslav ParamonovEmail author
  • Alexey Shigarov
  • Varvara Vetrova
  • Andrey Mikhailov
Conference paper
First Online:
  • 397 Downloads
Part of the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series (AISC, volume 1050)

Abstract

Tables in electronic documents (spreadsheets) contain large volumes of useful information about different domains. Efficient extraction of data from document tables plays a crucial role in its further usage including analysis and integration. The visual or logical structure of table elements might differ from its physical structure. Such differences cause difficulties for automated table processing and understanding. Automated correction from physical form to visual allows to simplify tables processing operations. In this paper, we propose a heuristic approach for transformation of tables’ header cells. The main goal of the proposed approach is to provide an algorithm and software tool for recovering a physical structure of a spreadsheet header. The proposed approach is illustrated by application to the Statistical Abstract of the United States (SAUS) dataset.

Keywords

Spreadsheets Table structure Cells Heuristics Table layers 
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© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Matrosov Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of SciencesIrkutskRussia
  2. 2.School of Mathematics and StatisticsUniversity of CanterburyChristchurchNew Zealand

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