Extract Data from .PDF files

Question

I need to extract data from .PDF files and load it in to SQL 2008. Can any one tell me how to proceed??

Answer 1

Imagine if you asked this question. How can I load data from arbitrary text files into a SQL table. The challenge isn't opening the text file and reading it, its getting meaningful data out of the files automatically.

So you can use either iText or pdfSharp to read the PDF files, but its the getting meaningful data out that's going to be the challenge.

Answer 2

If you mean metadata, try this question (first answer)

Read/Modify PDF Metadata using iTextSharp

You'll have to do the database stuff yourself though.

Answer 3

Here is an example of how to use iTextSharp to extract text data from a PDF. You'll have to fiddle with it some to make it do exactly what you want, I think it's a good outline. You can see how the StringBuilder is being used to store the text, but you could easily change that to use SQL.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(@"c:\test.pdf");

        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

        for (int x = 1; x <= reader.NumberOfPages; x++)
        {
            PdfDictionary page = reader.GetPageN(x);
            IRenderListener listener = new SBTextRenderer(builder);
            PdfContentStreamProcessor processor = new PdfContentStreamProcessor(listener);
            PdfDictionary pageDic = reader.GetPageN(x);
            PdfDictionary resourcesDic = pageDic.GetAsDict(PdfName.RESOURCES);
            processor.ProcessContent(ContentByteUtils.GetContentBytesForPage(reader, x), resourcesDic);
        }
    }

public class SBTextRenderer : IRenderListener
{

    private StringBuilder _builder;
    public SBTextRenderer(StringBuilder builder)
    {
        _builder = builder;
    }
    #region IRenderListener Members

    public void BeginTextBlock()
    {
    }

    public void EndTextBlock()
    {
    }

    public void RenderImage(ImageRenderInfo renderInfo)
    {
    }

    public void RenderText(TextRenderInfo renderInfo)
    {
        _builder.Append(renderInfo.GetText());
    }

    #endregion
}

Answer 4

what you need to do is to use a tool to extract the text from PDF first and then read the file into a binary reader .. then store it into your database .. for extracting the text there are several tools to use. the first to mention are: