> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.less.tech/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Directory

> Load multiple tables

The Directory tool can we used to load and stack (union) multiple tables with one tool. You can also control which tables you want to load with your Canvas parameters.

### Configuration

<Steps>
  <Step title="Table name pattern">
    <Tip>This input supports parameter syntax</Tip>
    Input a pattern that correspondxs to the tables names you want to import. This
    uses wildcards to match table names. You could - for instance - write *testDataset*\*
    to get all the tables whose name begins with *testDataset*.

    You can use the following to get started with pattern matching:

    * \* matches any number of characters (including none). Example: *dataset\** matches dataset\_1, dataset\_abc but not hello\_dataset\_1
    * ? matches any single character. Example: *data\*?.csv* matches data\_a.csv, data\_1.csv but not data\_123.csv
    * \[seq] matches any character in seq. Example: *file\[12].csv* matches file1.csv and file2.csv but not file55.csv
  </Step>

  <Step title="Folder matching">
    If selected, you can restrict the tables being matched to only come from a
    certain folder. This requires you to input the revelant folder ID (which you
    can find from the URL when navigating to a folder). This might be helpful if
    you want to ensure you don't match any undesired tables.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Folder ID pattern">
    <Tip>This input supports parameter syntax</Tip>
    This input is only shown if *Folder matching* above is enabled.

    You should input the ID of the folder you want to restrict tables coming from here.
  </Step>

  <Step title="File limit (optional)">
    You can choose to limit the number of files being loaded. If you're working with less restrictive patterns such as \*.csv, it could be quite helpful to restrict the number of files as you might otherwise end up with very large combined tables.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Row limit (optional)">
    You can choose to limit the number of rows being loaded from each file. If you're working with large datasets, it could be helpful to begin by restricting the number of rows while you validate what's being loaded.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Dataset column matching">
    By enabling this option you place a restriction that all tables that are loaded must have exactly the same columns. If one of the tables doesn't, then the Directory tool will fail. This is helpful if you know that all tables should match 1:1 in their structure and if they don't then it must be because of a wrong table being loaded.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Example

In this example, we want to use a Parameter to match all tables beginning with *testDataset*. We only want to import 2 tables and each you be limited to 10 rows. We don't need tables to match each others structure (no column matching) and we don't care if tables come from different folders (no folder matching).

<Frame>
  <img className="rounded-md" src="https://mintcdn.com/less-51/ZjPXJAIsRGCMglYF/images/tools/directory/Example.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ZjPXJAIsRGCMglYF&q=85&s=0e672d696cf43c9e0f8bb25072deb943" width="3940" height="2668" data-path="images/tools/directory/Example.png" />
</Frame>

You'll notice a couple of things here.

1. We only have 20 rows. That seems correct. Maximum 2 tables each limited to 10 rows = a total of 20 rows
2. We're using our *fetch* parameter to get the \*testDataset\*\* pattern into our Directory tool. We use this to match two tables: *testDataset* and *testDataset123*
3. We have an origin column showing the original table name of each row - we can use this to track where our data originates from
4. We have a column called *from* in our *testDataset123* that is not present in *testDataset*. That's fine because we disabled column matching