Extracting from CSV & Excel files

Step setup

Whenever you’re setting up an Extract from email step, you’ll always start by specifying the file type (unless you’re working with just “Email content”).

Make sure the file attachment type dropdown in your step matches the file you’re expecting:

CSV/TSV for comma- or tab-separated files
Excel for .xlsx or .xls files

Selecting a sheet (Excel only)

If you send in an Excel file, you’ll be prompted to select which sheet to pull data from. You can identify the sheet by:

Name — e.g., “Sheet1” or “Data Export”
Position — e.g., the 1st sheet, the 2nd sheet

We recommend using position, not name. Sheet names can change without warning when vendors update their templates. Selecting by position (e.g., “1st sheet”) keeps your flow working even when the name changes (though it’s also possible that vendors change position as well).

Parsing settings

The step offers three parsing modes. The right choice depends on how structured and consistent your file is.

Basic
Find the table with AI
Extract data with AI

Imports the file exactly as it looks — headers, rows, and all. This works for most standardized Excel and CSV files.Under Basic, you can also:

Skip rows — if headers aren’t in the first row, or there’s extra content at the top
Skip columns — if there’s padding or extra data at the left edge of the sheet
Import as formatted values (default) or unformatted values

The most flexible option. Use this when your file is inconsistent, combines multiple tables, or uses non-standard layouts. You define exactly what data to extract.Two extraction types are available:Extract a tableDefine the columns you want to pull. For each column you can provide:

A name — what you want the column called in Parabola
Example values — helps the AI recognize the right data
Additional instructions — useful for ambiguous column names or unusual formatting

Extract individual valuesFor single data points that apply to the entire document — like an invoice number, a report date, or a vendor name. Each value gets its own definition with the same name/example/instructions structure.

Column and value data types

Every column and individual value defaults to Text, but you can set a specific type for cleaner output:

Type	Behavior
Text	Returns the value as-is
True / False	Returns “True” or “False” — useful for detecting checkboxes or indicators
Number	Strips trailing zeros and currency symbols
Currency	Converts any currency format to a clean number
Date	Returns in ISO 8601 format: `2022-09-27T18:00:00.000`
Signature	Converts signatures to readable text
List of options	Constrains results to a set of valid values you define

Each step can extract 1 table and any number of individual values simultaneously.

FAQs

What happens if multiple emails arrive while the flow is already running?

Emails queue up in the order they’re received — up to 1,000 can be queued at a time. Each is processed sequentially once the current run finishes.

What if I need to download a file from a link inside the email?

The Extract from email step reads data, but can’t download a file from a URL. To handle this pattern:

Use Extract from email to pull the download URL out of the email body
Pass that URL into a Run another flow step
In the destination flow, start with Pull from file queue and end with Generate CSV file

Are there file size limitations?

Files must be under 5MB. Larger files will not process.

Can I process different files in different steps from the same email?

If your flow has multiple Extract from email steps, all of them read from the same email/file. You can’t send different files to different steps within the same flow.

What’s next

Next, we’ll move on to PDFs — a fundamentally different challenge that unlocks a lot of powerful use cases.

Building challenge

Pull the CSV file you downloaded in lesson 1 into your flow:

Copy the email address from your step settings

Looks like: d9af5437a96e40ef9160ed4a5ee7656@inbound.parabola.io

Open any email client and send an email to that address, with the CSV file attached

Don’t worry about the subject and body

Watch your Parabola flow automatically pull in the data

You’ll see the flow run a few seconds after sending an email

Check your work

Overview

Courses

Extracting from CSV & Excel files

Step setup

Selecting a sheet (Excel only)

Parsing settings

Column and value data types

FAQs

What’s next

Building challenge

Overview

Courses

​Step setup

​Selecting a sheet (Excel only)

​Parsing settings

​Column and value data types

​FAQs

​What’s next

Building challenge

Step setup

Selecting a sheet (Excel only)

Parsing settings

Column and value data types

FAQs

What’s next