AutoIt Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Extract a PDF Table with Merged Cells

See more PDF Text Extraction Examples

Demonstrates how merged cells are reported by the "tables" operation: a header cell that spans several columns has colSpan greater than 1, and a row label that spans several rows has rowSpan greater than 1. Also shows the minRows and minColumns options. AutoIt

Local $bSuccess = False

;  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
;  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

;  The PDF used in this example is available at spans_table.pdf

$oPdf = ObjCreate("Chilkat.Pdf")
$bSuccess = $oPdf.LoadFile("qa_data/pdf/spans_table.pdf")
If ($bSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oPdf.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

$oJson = ObjCreate("Chilkat.JsonObject")
$oJsonOut = ObjCreate("Chilkat.JsonObject")

;  Grids smaller than minRows x minColumns are not reported as tables.  The defaults are 2 and 2.
;  Setting them higher skips small boxes that are not really tables.
$oJson.UpdateInt("minRows",3)
$oJson.UpdateInt("minColumns",3)

$bSuccess = $oPdf.ExtractText("tables",$oJson,$oJsonOut)
If ($bSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oPdf.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

ConsoleWrite("Tables found: " & $oJsonOut.IntOf("count") & @CRLF)
ConsoleWrite($oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].rows") & " rows x " & $oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].columns") & " columns" & @CRLF)

;  A merged cell is reported once, at its top-left position, with its spans.
;  The positions it covers have no cell of their own.
Local $iRowSpan
Local $iColSpan
Local $iJ = 0
Local $iCount_j = $oJsonOut.SizeOfArray("tables[0].cells")
While $iJ < $iCount_j
    $oJsonOut.J = $iJ
    $iRowSpan = $oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].rowSpan")
    $iColSpan = $oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].colSpan")
    If (($iRowSpan > 1) Or ($iColSpan > 1)) Then
        ConsoleWrite("row " & $oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].row") & ", col " & $oJsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].col") & ": """ & $oJsonOut.StringOf("tables[0].cells[j].text") _
             & """ spans " & $iRowSpan & " row(s) and " & $iColSpan & " column(s)" & @CRLF)
    EndIf

    $iJ = $iJ + 1
Wend

;  Sample output:

;  Tables found: 1
;  6 rows x 6 columns
;  row 0, col 0: "Area" spans 2 row(s) and 1 column(s)
;  row 0, col 1: "City" spans 2 row(s) and 1 column(s)
;  row 0, col 2: "First Half" spans 1 row(s) and 2 column(s)
;  row 0, col 4: "Second Half" spans 1 row(s) and 2 column(s)
;  row 2, col 0: "East" spans 2 row(s) and 1 column(s)
;  row 4, col 0: "West" spans 2 row(s) and 1 column(s)