1. Click the Advanced selection link.

Advanced selection helps you perform dynamic file selection based on regex. This can be used for getting new or incremental data from your Google Drive folder. The newly added or modified file that matches the file pattern during the specific data interval will be taken from your Google Drive folder. Click here to know more about incremental fetch.

Important: Advanced selection is used not only for incremental fetch. You can also use this option for bulk import of files based on the file pattern. 

Note: Supported formats are CSV, TSV, JSON, XML, TXT, XLS, and XLSX. You can also import files in zipped format.
For Zip files, only one file is supported. Make sure there is only one file compressed or zipped in the .zip file.

When you import files in bulk, the files in the trash will also be imported unless they are permanently deleted. To avoid this, please ensure the files are removed from the trash.

2. Provide the following details :

• Choose folder: Choose the folder you want to import data from.

• Folder path: The folder path where you want to search for files. Eg. 2023/ 
  
  If the files are stored in the drive without any folder, you can leave this field empty.

  

  The "Folder Path" is a directory path field and does not support regex patterns.
  Info: Folder path is case-sensitive.

• Include subfolders: You can also select the Include subfolders checkbox if you want to include subfolders while searching for a file. Click here to know the limitations of this option.
  

• File pattern: The pattern used to match the file names in the folder. This supports regex-type matching. You can also use the pattern, ".*" to match any file in the path specified.
  
• Info: File pattern is case-sensitive.

Note: The file pattern match is a simple regex type match. For example, to fetch files with file names such as Sales_2022.csv , Sales_2023.csv , Sales_2024.csv , you can input the pattern Sales_.* 

Similarly to fetch files such as PublicData1.csv , PublicData2.csv , PublicData3.csv , use Public.*

If you want to import a single file, then specify the pattern using the exact file name.
Eg: leads_jan_2022.*

• File password: Enter the password if the file is password-protected.
  

• Merge files and import - This will merge all the files that match the pattern specified and import them as a single dataset.

  You can use this option to merge files together during the import itself, without having to perform unions post-import.

  Info: This option can merge a maximum of only 5 files at a time.
  Note: If this checkbox is unchecked, then only 1 file will be fetched at a time.
  Eg, If your Google Drive account has 10 files, the first 5 will be merged into one dataset and imported. During the next reload, the remaining 5 files will be merged and imported.
  
  
  
  Similarly, if your Google Drive account has 8 files, the first 5 will be merged and fetched first, followed by the next 3. 
  
• File type: Choose the required file format. The available formats are CSV, TSV, JSON, XLS, XLSX, XML, and TXT.
• Sheet pattern: This option is available for the XLS and XLSX formats only. The pattern used to match the sheet names in the file. This supports regex-type matching. You can also use the pattern ".*" to match any sheet in the file.

  

  The sheet pattern match is also a simple regex-based match. For example, to fetch sheets with names such as Sales_2022, Sales_2023, Sales_2024, you can input the pattern Sales_.*
  

  
  

  Similarly, to fetch sheets such as PublicData1, PublicData2, PublicData3, use Public.*

  
  

  If you want to import a single sheet, then specify the pattern using the exact sheet name.

  Eg: Leads_Jan_2022.*
  
• 

  Info: Sheet pattern is case-sensitive.

  
  
• Sheet password: This option is available for XLS and XLSX formats only. Enter the password if the sheet is password-protected.
  
• Merge sheets and import: This will merge all the sheets that match the pattern specified and import them as a single dataset.

You can use this option to merge sheets together during the import itself, without having to perform unions post-import.

Note: If this checkbox is unchecked, then only 1 sheet will be fetched at a time. 

3. Click the Import button.

Note: Supported formats are CSV, TSV, JSON, XML, TXT, XLS, and XLSX. You can also import files in zipped format. 

 In the case of Zip files, only one file is supported. Make sure there is only one file compressed or zipped in the .zip file.

 

File parsing

File Parsing is the process of interpreting and structuring a file during import so that the data is correctly organized into rows and columns for processing.

In File Parsing, there are two options: Auto Parsing and Custom Parsing.

1. Auto Parsing - Automatically detects the file structure (delimiter, headers, encoding, etc.) and formats the data accordingly.
   
2. Custom Parsing - Allows you to manually configure how the file should be read, giving full control over delimiters, headers, encoding, and other settings.
   

Custom Parsing includes the following options:

• File encoding: You can encode the file using character encoding methods like UTF-8 through the File Encoding option.

• Text qualifiers: You can specify the characters that indicate the beginning and end of a text field, such as Single Quote (') or Double Quote (").

• Delimiter: You can separate or split the data using a delimiter such as Comma (,), Semicolon (;), Space, Tab, or Pipe (|). You also have a Custom delimiter option to define your own separator.

• Skip initial rows: Skip parsing a specified number of rows at the beginning of the file.

• Comment character: Specifies the first character of a commented row. Commented rows will be skipped during import.

• Escape character: Specifies the character used to escape delimiters or quotes so they are treated as plain text. Available options include Double Quote ("), Backslash (), Pipe (|), Carat (^), and Tilde (~).

• Trim spaces automatically: Removes leading and trailing whitespaces from all columns during data import.

• Data contains header: Specify the row number that should be used as the column header.
  
  

File parsing options

The table below covers the file import options for cloud storage services.

SEE ALSO

How to add a new pipeline?

How to import data from cloud databases?

How to import data from saved data connections?

How to schedule a pipeline?        

What other cloud storage options are available in Zoho DataPrep?  

How to export data to Google Drive?