Get Inspire insights from former attendees in our AMA discussion thread on Inspire Buzz. ACEs and other community members are on call all week to answer!

Alteryx Designer Desktop Discussions

Find answers, ask questions, and share expertise about Alteryx Designer Desktop and Intelligence Suite.
SOLVED

Convert PDF file to TXT

mb1824
9 - Comet

Hi,

 

I use the PDF Parser at http://silvercoders.com/en/products/doctotext/ to convert PDF files to text files. Most of the time it works really well.

 

However, it doesn't do such a good job on one particular file that I receive every month. It contains 4 pages with 6 tables on each page that each use values from the same fields for rows/columns & amounts.

 

I think (not 100% sure) the file is generated by Cognos/TM1. The doctotext converter works as per normal, but it is impossible to use normal Alteryx tools (I mostly use REG_EX / Multi-Row formula / filter) to extract the data within. The rows/columns labels & amounts are spread all over the place and there are no repeated patterns to work with.  

 

I can export the PDF to XLSX using the converter within Adobe Reader (I have paid to have Adobe Export PDF), but I am unaware of how to make that happen within Alteryx and I am trying to avoid the manual process step of doing something outside Alteryx

 

I have asked many times for the file to be sent as XLSX or CSV and eventually gave up

 

Do you have any ideas?

5 REPLIES 5
LordNeilLord
15 - Aurora

Hey @mb1824 

 

I used this great guide the other day by.... https://oliverpower.wordpress.com/2018/02/08/parsing-pdfs-using-alteryx-and-a-little-r/

 

It worked perfectly

 

Neil

mb1824
9 - Comet

Thanks, I will try that out

OGUJI
5 - Atom

Hi,

Did you find any solution for this? I am new to Alteryx and having same difficulty.

 

mb1824
9 - Comet

I haven't got back to this to try the suggestion from @LordNeilLord

DiganP
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

@mb1824 There are some tools on the gallery that you can use to parse pdfs. 

 

https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/PDF-Input--Text-and-Image-/5be5ec8d0462d71ffce6deaa

 

https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!app/PDF-Input/5b685aff0462d710907f7a3b

 

Give them a try 🙂

Digan
Alteryx
Labels