PowerShell 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. PowerShell

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $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

$pdf = New-Object Chilkat.Pdf
$success = $pdf.LoadFile("qa_data/pdf/spans_table.pdf")
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($pdf.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$json = New-Object Chilkat.JsonObject
$jsonOut = New-Object 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.
$json.UpdateInt("minRows",3)
$json.UpdateInt("minColumns",3)

$success = $pdf.ExtractText("tables",$json,$jsonOut)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($pdf.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$("Tables found: " + $jsonOut.IntOf("count"))
$([string]$jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].rows") + " rows x " + $jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].columns") + " columns")

#  A merged cell is reported once, at its top-left position, with its spans.
#  The positions it covers have no cell of their own.

$j = 0
$count_j = $jsonOut.SizeOfArray("tables[0].cells")
while ($j -lt $count_j) {
    $jsonOut.J = $j
    $rowSpan = $jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].rowSpan")
    $colSpan = $jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].colSpan")
    if (($rowSpan -gt 1) -or ($colSpan -gt 1)) {
        $("row " + $jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].row") + ", col " + $jsonOut.IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].col") + ": `"" + $jsonOut.StringOf("tables[0].cells[j].text")
             + "`" spans " + $rowSpan + " row(s) and " + $colSpan + " column(s)")
    }

    $j = $j + 1
}

#  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)