untabulate 0.2.3

Untabulate grid data for friendly llm embedddings or similar analysis

Untabulate

A Cython-accelerated library for associating tabular data points with their governing row and column headers. While it includes helpers for HTML and Excel, the core logic is source-agnostic, making it ideal for LLM embeddings and RAG pipelines where semantic context is crucial.

"Improving LLM accuracy since 2036"

Installation

pip install untabulate

To include HTML parsing support:

pip install "untabulate[lxml]"

To include Excel parsing support:

pip install "untabulate[openpyxl]"

To include both:

pip install "untabulate[lxml,openpyxl]"

The Problem

When you extract data from a table like this:

		Q1	Q2
Revenue		100	120
	North America	40	50
	Europe	60	70

Traditional parsers give you value=40 at position (3, 3). But for LLM embeddings, you need:

Revenue → North America → Q1: 40

Quick Start

from untabulate import untabulate_html

html = """
<table>
    <tr><th></th><th>Q1</th><th>Q2</th></tr>
    <tr><th>Revenue</th><td>100</td><td>120</td></tr>
    <tr><th>Costs</th><td>60</td><td>70</td></tr>
</table>
"""

# Get all data with semantic context in one call
for item in untabulate_html(html, format="strings"):
    print(item)

# Output:
# Revenue → Q1: 100
# Revenue → Q2: 120
# Costs → Q1: 60
# Costs → Q2: 70

Output Formats

Choose the format that fits your use case:

from untabulate import untabulate_html

html = "<table><tr><th></th><th>Q1</th></tr><tr><th>Revenue</th><td>100</td></tr></table>"

# Strings - ready for embeddings
untabulate_html(html, format="strings")
# → ["Revenue → Q1: 100"]

# Dicts - structured data with metadata
untabulate_html(html, format="dict")
# → [{"path": ["Revenue", "Q1"], "value": "100", "context": "Revenue → Q1: 100"}]

# Tuples - lightweight path/value pairs
untabulate_html(html, format="tuples")
# → [(["Revenue", "Q1"], "100")]

Excel Files

from untabulate import untabulate_xlsx

results = untabulate_xlsx("financial_report.xlsx", format="strings")
for line in results:
    print(line)

Command Line

Install with CLI support:

pip install "untabulate[cli]"

Then use from the command line:

# Fetch and process a URL
untabulate html https://example.com/report.html

# Process a local HTML file
untabulate html ./report.html

# Target a specific table by ID
untabulate html page.html --id quarterly-results

# Process Excel files
untabulate xlsx data.xlsx --sheet "Q1 Results"

# Different output formats
untabulate html report.html --format json   # Default: structured JSON
untabulate html report.html --format text   # One line per value
untabulate html report.html --format jsonl  # JSON Lines (for streaming)
untabulate html report.html --format csv    # CSV format

# Read from stdin
curl https://example.com | untabulate -

# Custom separator
untabulate html report.html --format text --separator " | "

Custom Separator

untabulate_html(html, format="strings", separator=" | ")
# → ["Revenue | Q1: 100"]

Working with Custom Data Sources

Use untabulate() with any data source - dicts, tuples, or objects:

from untabulate import untabulate

# From database rows or API responses
data = [
    {"is_header": True, "row": 1, "col": 2, "value": "Q1"},
    {"is_header": True, "row": 2, "col": 1, "value": "Revenue"},
    {"is_header": False, "row": 2, "col": 2, "value": "100"},
]

results = untabulate(data, format="strings")
# → ["Revenue → Q1: 100"]

Algorithm: Semantic Header Scoping

The ProjectionGrid uses a simple but effective scoping rule:

1. Row headers (column 1) propagate downward to all rows below them
2. Column headers apply to the columns they span

This captures hierarchical relationships naturally:

Row 1: "Revenue" in col 1      → applies to rows 1, 2, 3, 4...
Row 2: "North America" in col 1 → applies to rows 2, 3, 4...
Row 3: "Europe" in col 1        → applies to rows 3, 4...

When you query get_path(row=3, col=2), you get all headers that govern that cell: ["Revenue", "North America", "Q1"]

API Reference

High-Level Functions

untabulate_html(html, *, format="dict", separator=" → ", span_as_label=False, all_tables=False)

Parse HTML and extract data with semantic paths in one step.

• html: HTML string containing table(s)
• format: "dict", "strings", or "tuples"
• separator: Path separator for context strings
• span_as_label: Treat cells with rowspan/colspan > 1 as headers
• all_tables: Parse all tables (returns list of lists)
• Returns: List of results in the specified format
• Raises: TableNotFoundError if no table found

untabulate_xlsx(filepath, *, sheet_name=None, format="dict", separator=" → ")

Parse Excel and extract data with semantic paths in one step.

• filepath: Path to .xlsx file
• sheet_name: Worksheet name (default: active sheet)
• format: "dict", "strings", or "tuples"
• separator: Path separator for context strings
• Returns: List of results in the specified format

untabulate(data, *, format="dict", separator=" → ")

Extract semantic paths from any data source.

• data: List of dicts, tuples, objects, or GridElement instances
• format: "dict", "strings", or "tuples"
• separator: Path separator for context strings
• Returns: List of results in the specified format

Low-Level API

For advanced use cases, you can use the lower-level components directly:

parse_html_table(html_string, span_as_label=False, all_tables=False)

Parse HTML table(s) into GridElement instances.

parse_xlsx_worksheet(filepath, sheet_name=None)

Parse an Excel worksheet into GridElement instances.

ProjectionGrid(elements)

Build a semantic header projection from elements.

ProjectionGrid.get_path(data_row, data_col)

Get headers governing a cell position.

GridElement(is_header, row, col, rowspan, colspan, value)

Lightweight element for table cells.

• is_header: True if this cell is a header, False for data cells
• row/col: 1-based position
• rowspan/colspan: Cell span
• value: Text content of the cell

Performance

~1M cells/second on typical hardware. The Cython implementation provides ~30% speedup over pure Python, but the main win is the O(n) algorithm vs O(n²) naive approaches.

Why This Matters for LLMs

Embedding models need semantic context, not coordinates. When chunking documents for RAG:

❌ "40" - meaningless without context
❌ "cell (3,2): 40" - coordinates don't help
✅ "Revenue → North America → Q1: 40" - full semantic path

This enables:

• Better vector similarity for table-based questions
• Accurate retrieval of specific data points
• Natural language grounding for structured data

Development

# Clone and install in development mode
git clone https://github.com/patrick/untabulate.git
cd untabulate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Build distribution
python -m build

Sponsor

• Fluvial Diligence TPRM and Vendor Assessment platform

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.