Detecting and recognizing tables in spreadsheets

Detecting tables in a spreadsheet is the first step needed to make spreadsheet documents accessible to individuals with visual disabilities. Techniques to enable aural presentation and navigation of tables have been proposed, but they assume a thorough knowledge of the structure of the table; on the other hand, boundaries and structure of tables in a spreadsheet are not evident without a visual exploration. This paper presents an algorithm for table recognition in spreadsheets. The algorithm uses three types of cells as its basis: title cell, header cell, and data cell. Different attributes of the cells are used to identify the cell type within a spreadsheet. Hierarchical clustering is used to aggregate cells to compose the functional components of a table. The algorithm has been evaluated on a diverse set of benchmarks with very encouraging results. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.4.2 [Social Issues]: Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities General Terms Algorithm...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: DAS
• Authors: Iyad Abu Doush, Enrico Pontelli
• Keywords: Algorithms, DAS 2010, Document Analysis, Spreadsheet, Table Recognition