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In Evernote you can embed HTML tables in the note. You can then export them to an xml format with the extension enex. I am trying to get the data from the table imported into Mathematica. Here is the data from a small test note I made and exported as test.enex:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE en-export SYSTEM "http://xml.evernote.com/pub/evernote-export.dtd">
<en-export export-date="20120812T214410Z" application="Evernote/Windows" version="4.x">
<note><title>test</title><content><![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE en-note SYSTEM "http://xml.evernote.com/pub/enml2.dtd">

<en-note style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><b>heading 1</b></td><td valign="top"><b>heading 2</b></td><td valign="top"><b>heading 3</b></td></tr><tr><td valign="top">text 1</td><td valign="top">12.34</td><td valign="top">5</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">text 2</td><td valign="top"><br/></td><td valign="top">9</td></tr><tr><td valign="top">text 3</td><td valign="top">13.33</td><td valign="top">10</td></tr></tbody></table></en-note>]]></content><created>20120812T144746Z</created><updated>20120812T214402Z</updated><tag>testtag</tag></note></en-export>

I am not really sure how to get this imported into Mathematica and then get the data extracted from the embedded HTML table. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Slightly changed the test data so that there is a missing data point, which it turns out happens in my real dataset.

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1 Answer 1

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Below I use ImportString as a proxy for Import so that we don't need external files for the demonstration, but Import should work similarly.

imp = ImportString["<- paste your XML code between the double quotes ->", {"XML", "CDATA"}]

(* ==> 
{"test", "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?> <!DOCTYPE \
en-note SYSTEM \"http://xml.evernote.com/pub/enml2.dtd\"> <en-note \
style=\"word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; \
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space;\"><table border=\"1\" \
cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"><tbody><tr><td \
valign=\"top\"><b>heading 1</b></td><td valign=\"top\"><b>heading \
2</b></td><td valign=\"top\"><b>heading 3</b></td></tr><tr><td \
valign=\"top\">text 1</td><td valign=\"top\">12.34</td><td \
valign=\"top\">5</td></tr><tr><td valign=\"top\">text 2</td><td \
valign=\"top\">12.1</td><td valign=\"top\">9</td></tr><tr><td valign=\
\"top\">text 3</td><td valign=\"top\">13.33</td><td \
valign=\"top\">10</td></tr></tbody></table></en-note>", \
"20120812T144746Z", "20120812T144859Z", "testtag"}
*)

Apparently we need the second element here. We'll try to import that as HTML and get the data out of it:

ImportString[imp[[2]], {"HTML", "Data"}]

{{"heading 1", "heading 2", "heading 3"}, {"text 1", 12.34, 5}, {"text 2", 12.1, 9}, {"text 3", 13.33, 10}}

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  • $\begingroup$ It works almost perfectly. The one edge case it stumbles upon is the one I didn't think to include in the text example: missing data. If there is a value missing in a row it just leaves it out making that particular sub-list shorter, which mean the columns end up misaligned. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Alpha
    Aug 12, 2012 at 21:56
  • $\begingroup$ @MrAlpha How is the missing data marked? $\endgroup$
    – Sjoerd C. de Vries
    Aug 12, 2012 at 22:02
  • $\begingroup$ The cell is empty, which means Evernote puts a simple <br /> tag in the cell. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Alpha
    Aug 12, 2012 at 22:05
  • $\begingroup$ @MrAlpha I think using "FullData" instead of "Data" might help. $\endgroup$
    – Sjoerd C. de Vries
    Aug 12, 2012 at 22:07
  • $\begingroup$ That works! It ends up wrapping it in a bunch of {}, but that is just and excuse for First@First@First@First. Thank you. I must have spent hours trying to get this to work, and what I could come up with was much more brittle and complex and still kept messing up the data. I must admit the second argument for Import remains a mystery for me. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Alpha
    Aug 12, 2012 at 22:14

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