Select a header below a preface row

Files that start with a title line

Many exports put a line of context above the column names: a report title, an account name, a date range or a note like Monthly export. When pages are joined, the real header repeats further down, but the preface line usually does not. If the cleaner compared later rows with the preface instead of the real header, it would remove nothing, and the repeated headers would stay in your data.

The cleaner does not guess which line is metadata and which is the header. You tell it with the Header row field, which counts from 1.

Pointing the cleaner at the real header

• Paste the joined text into Table text and choose the Delimiter.
• Count lines from the top: the preface is line 1, the column names are line 2.
• Enter 2 in Header row and press Calculate.
• Check Removed header rows and look at the preview to see which later rows are gone.
• If you also want the preface removed, delete it from your copy as a separate, deliberate edit.

Monthly export walked through

The page example has four source rows: Monthly export with an empty second cell, Name and Amount, Paper and 12.50, and Name and Amount again. With Header row set to 2, the cleaner removes source row 4 because it equals the chosen header. The output has 3 rows: the preface, the header and the Paper record.

Rows above the chosen header are never compared or removed, so the preface stays in the output exactly as it was.

What goes wrong with the wrong number

• Leaving Header row at 1 makes the preface the reference row. The later Name and Amount line does not match it, so Removed header rows shows 0.
• Entering a number past the end of the table is rejected as invalid input.
• Choosing a data row by mistake removes every later row that is identical to that record, including genuine duplicates, so always read the removal count before you download.
• The preview treats the first output row as its column headings, so with a preface you will see Monthly export at the top of the preview. That is a display detail; the downloaded CSV keeps all rows in order.
• Header row counts parsed records, not raw lines, so a quoted note with a line break inside still counts as one row.

Title lines in app-read tables

When the Tablora app reads a page, a title line can be captured as the first row of the table. Turn Header row off for that table, or delete the title row with Delete row, so the real column names become the bold, frozen header in the XLSX.

Original synthetic example

Browser header row

2

Removed source rows

4

Output rows

3

Tools

• repeated-header-cleanup