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Excel file upload and extraction into records in another table

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Gabriel_Antonin
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Hi everyone,

Wanted to ask if this was possible (whether through an extension or formula or automation):

  1. We have excel files that are uploaded onto Airtable as attachments (Table 1)
  2. We currently download these files manually and copy-paste the values onto another table (Table 2) in Airtable

Is there a way to automatically extract the values from the excel file in Table 1 and update/create records of those extracted values in Table 2?

Thank you in advance.

1 Reply 1

Welcome to the community, @Gabriel_Antonino_Jua!

Instead of copying and pasting the data, Airtable offers you the ability to import an Excel file directly into a pre-existing table. You can just right-click on the table name and choose to import data from an Excel file.

However, you would need to have the Excel file accessible on your desktop or in a cloud storage space… you couldn’t just import the contents of the Excel file while it is sitting in an attachment field.

Is there a reason that you’re storing the Excel files in an attachment field first before importing the data? I’m assuming that you’re doing this because non-collaborators might be submitting these Excel files via a form?

There is no automated way in Airtable to automatically download an Excel file from an attachment field and then import its contents to another table.

But if you’re looking for an automatic way of doing it, you could automate that entire process by using the Airtable & Excel functions of Make, which is a low-code automation platform:

That would probably take me at least 45 minutes to setup (or much longer, depending on the complexity of your specific situation), so I can’t give you the exact step-by-step instructions here.

But if you can’t figure it out on your own, and your company has a budget to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you automate this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld.