http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=11113478


in reply to Regular Expression to Parse Data from a PDF

G'day Kevin,

Firstly, I'm not a user of CAM::PDF; in fact, I didn't even have it installed. I suspect the getPageText() method is not the best choice for this: as you noted, you can't split lines easily and dollar amounts have an embedded space — I can't advise of a better choice; perhaps another monk can.

I would strongly recommend that you do not write lengthy regexes the way you did in the last example in your code: they are incredibly difficult to read; even more difficult to maintain; and extremely error-prone. See my code below for a much better way to do this. Also, take a look at Regexp::Debugger: I find it very helpful and, in fact, used it to check some of the fiddlier parts of the regex in the code below.

I've ignored the PDF download part of the code. You didn't ask about that: I'm assuming you've got that working satisfactorily. I just downloaded the two PDFs you referenced and accessed them from a local disk.

Some notes on how I've dealt with lack of information:

Here's the code:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use constant {
    AMOUNT => 3,
    ADDL_RATE_PER => 4,
    DISCOUNT_PRICE => 6,
};

use CAM::PDF;
use Data::Dumper;

my $jacket_id = $ARGV[0];
my $pdf_file = "pm_11113472_$jacket_id.pdf";

my $pdf = CAM::PDF::->new($pdf_file) or die $CAM::PDF::errstr;

my $re = qr{(?x:
    \A
    \s*?
    ((?:A|))                # Awd
    \s+
    (\d+-\d+)               # Contractor Code
    \s+
    ([^\$]+?)               # Name
    \s+
    (\$\s[0-9,.]+)          # Amount
    \s+
    (\$\s[0-9,.]+\s[A-Z])   # Add'l Rate/PER
    \s+
    ([0-9.]+\s+\d+)         # Discount % Days
    \s+
    (\$\s[0-9,.]+)          # Discount Price
    \s+
    ([\D]+?)                # Bidders Name
    \s+
    (\S+)                   # Date Received
    \s+
    (\(\d+\)\s\d+-\d+)      # Phone Number
)};

for my $page_num (1 .. $pdf->numPages) {
    my $text = $pdf->getPageText($page_num);
    my @lines;
    my $wanted_line = 0;

    for my $line (split /$jacket_id/, $text) {
        next unless $wanted_line++;
        my @fields = $line =~ $re;
        $fields[AMOUNT] =~ y/ //d;
        $fields[ADDL_RATE_PER] =~ s/ //;
        $fields[DISCOUNT_PRICE] =~ y/ //d;
        push @lines, [ $jacket_id, @fields ];
    }

    print Dumper(\@lines);
}

[download]

Here's the first part of the output using your first example PDF: 

$ ./pm_11113472_pdf_parse.pl 746810
$VAR1 = [
          [
            '746810',
            'A',
            '140-89226',
            'UNION HOERMANN PRESS',
            '$844.00',
            '$15.00 C',
            '1 20',
            '$835.56',
            'Randy Sigman',
            '01/22/2020',
            '(563) 582-3631'
          ],
          [
            '746810',
            '',
            '190-38407',
            'GRAPHIC VISIONS',
            '$869.00',
            '$140.00 M',
            '0.5 20',
            '$864.66',
            'Howard Roskosky',
            '01/22/2020',
            '(301) 987-5586'
          ],

[download]

Open the spoiler to see full output for both example PDFs.

<Reveal this spoiler or all in this thread>

— Ken

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Regular Expression to Parse Data from a PDF
by kevyt (Scribe) on Feb 27, 2020 at 16:35 UTC
    This is very cool. Thanks! The next step will be to grab the Title, Quantity and a few fields from links like this one. https://contractorconnection.gpo.gov/RequestOpenJobs/770893 Thanks very much!
[reply]
Re^2: Regular Expression to Parse Data from a PDF
by kevyt (Scribe) on Feb 28, 2020 at 02:25 UTC

    Ken, Thanks very much for your help. It's working great but I forgot about one issue. They might add a "R-1" or "R-2" to the far left column if there is a revision. I have not used perl much since 2006 and I rarely used regex. I also tried to get some of the comments but that wont be importing going forward. Example with R-1 https://contractorconnection.gpo.gov/abstract/777292 Example without R-1 https://contractorconnection.gpo.gov/abstract/777293 I also need to install CAM::PDF so I can run it on linux. 

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

# use warnings;
# use strict;
use CAM::PDF;
use LWP::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

use constant {
    AMOUNT => 0,
    ADDL_RATE_PER => 0,
    DISCOUNT_PRICE => 0,
};

####  These will be used to load different database tables  #####
$companies = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_companies.cs
+v';
$bids = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_bids.csv';
$awards = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_awards.csv';
$solicit = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_solicitations.
+csv';
$log_file = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_log.csv';

#### This file will be imported into excel (temp. solution so I won't 
+have to create the db tables now)
$all_file = 'c:\Users\Kevin\Documents\dev\data_files\gpo_abstract_data
+.csv';

open (COMPANY, ">> $companies") or die ("Can't open the output file $!
+");  
open (BID, ">> $bids") or die ("Can't open the output file $!"); 
open (AWARD, ">> $awards") or die ("Can't open the output file $!"); 
open (SOLICIT, ">> $solicit") or die ("Can't open the output file $!")
+; 
open (LOG, ">> $log_file") or die ("Can't open the output file $!");  
open (OUT, ">> $all_file") or die ("Can't open the output file $!");  

print OUT "Jacket_ID,Award,Contractor_Code,Company_Name,Amount,Addl_Ra
+te,Addl_Rate_Per,Discount_Percent,Discount_Days,Discount_Price,Bidder
+s_Name,Date_Received,Phone_Number\n";

my @ns_headers = (
    'User-Agent' => 'Mozilla/4.76 [en] (Win98; U)',
    'Accept' => 'image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, 
    image/pjpeg, image/png, */*',
    'Accept-Charset' => 'iso-8859-1,*,utf-8',
    'Accept-Language' => 'en-US',
);

my $jacket_id = 777390; # Get the most recent data first

while ($jacket_id > 700000){
    sleep (2);
    $jacket_id --;    
    my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
    $ua->timeout(5);   # Is the site available?
    
    print $jacket_id . "\n";

    my $response = $ua->get('https://contractorconnection.gpo.gov/abst
+ract/'. $jacket_id , @ns_headers);

    if ( $response =~ /Abstract Unavailable/){
        print LOG $jacket_id . ",Unavailable\n";
        next;
    }

    my $pdf = CAM::PDF->new($response->content) || print LOG $jacket_i
+d . ",ERROR,\n". next;
    my $re = qr{(?x:
        \A
        \s*?
        ((?:A|))                # Awd - 0
        \s+
        (\d+-\d+)               # Contractor Code - 1
        \s+
        ([^\$]+?)               # Name - 2
        \s+
        (\$\s[0-9,.]+)          # Amount - 3
        \s+
    ### (\$\s[0-9,.]+\s[A-Z])     # Add'l Rate/PER - 4
        (\$\s[0-9,.]+)            # Add'l Rate - 4
        \s+
        ([^\$]+?)               # Add'l Rate's Per - 5
        \s+    
    ###    ([0-9.]+\s+\d+)         # Discount % Days - 6
        ([0-9.]+)                 # Discount % - 6
        \s+
        (\d+)                    # Discount Days - 7
        \s+
        (\$\s[0-9,.]+)          # Discount Price - 8
        \s+
        ([\D]+?)                # Bidders Name - 9
        \s+
        (\S+)                   # Date Received - 10
        \s+
        (\(\d+\)\s\d+-\d+)      # Phone Number - 11
    )};

    for my $page_num (1 .. $pdf->numPages) {
        my $text = $pdf->getPageText($page_num);
        my @lines;
        my $wanted_line = 0;

        for my $line (split /$jacket_id/, $text) {
            # print $line;
            next unless $wanted_line++;
            my @fields = $line =~ $re;
            $fields[AMOUNT] =~ y/ //d;
            $fields[ADDL_RATE_PER] =~ s/ //;
            $fields[DISCOUNT_PRICE] =~ y/ //d;
            $fields[3] =~ s/\s+//g; # Remove the space between the $ a
+nd digit
            $fields[4] =~ s/\s+//g; # Remove the space between the $ a
+nd digit
            $fields[8] =~ s/\s+//g; # Remove the space between the $ a
+nd digit
        
            foreach (@fields){
                $_ =~ s/\,//; 
            }
        
            push @lines, [ $jacket_id, @fields ];
        
                    #     Contractor Code        Company Name         
+   Bidders Name    Phone Number
            print COMPANY $fields[1] . ",". $fields[2] . ",". $fields[
+9] . ",". $fields[11] . "\n";
            
                    #    Title    Quantity    Contact        Winning_C
+ontractor
            print SOLICIT $jacket_id . ",,,,". $fields[1] . "\n";

            if($fields[0] =~ /A/){    #        Contractor Code        
+Date Received
                print AWARD $jacket_id  . ",". $fields[1] . ",". $fiel
+ds[10] . "\n";
            }    #                    Contractor Code        Amount   
+             Add'l Rate        Add'l Rate's Per     Discount Days    
+Discount %        Discount Price
            print BID $jacket_id  . ",". $fields[1] . ",". $fields[3] 
+. ",". $fields[4] . ",". $fields[5] . ",". $fields[7] . ",". $fields[
+6] . ",". $fields[8] . "\n";
                    
            print OUT $jacket_id  . ",". $fields[0] . ",". $fields[1] 
+. ",". $fields[2] . ",". $fields[3] . ",". $fields[4] . ",". $fields[
+5] . ",". $fields[6] . ",".
                        $fields[7] . ",". $fields[8] . ",". $fields[9]
+ . ",". $fields[10] . ",". $fields[11] . "\n";
            
            # foreach my $field (@fields){
            #    print $field . ",";
            # }
            # print "\n";
        }
    # print Dumper(\@lines);
    }

} # End while ()

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      'They might add a "R-1" or "R-2" to the far left column if there is a revision.'

      You just need to extend the regex to handle that. Here's an example: 

      #!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

my $jid = '777';
my $text = 'header 777 111 777 A 222 777R-1 333 777R-2 A 444';
my $re = qr{(?x: \A (R-\d+|) \s*? (A|) \s (\d+) )};
my @lines;
my $wanted_line = 0;

for my $line (split /$jid/, $text) {
    next unless $wanted_line++;
    my @fields = $line =~ $re;
    push @lines, [ $jid . shift(@fields), @fields ];
}

print Dumper(\@lines);

      [download]

      Output:

      $VAR1 = [
          [
            '777',
            '',
            '111'
          ],
          [
            '777',
            'A',
            '222'
          ],
          [
            '777R-1',
            '',
            '333'
          ],
          [
            '777R-2',
            'A',
            '444'
          ]
        ];

      [download]
      print ... $fields[1] . ",". $fields[3] . ",". $fields[4] . ",". ...

      Here's an example to show a better way to handle that: 

      $ perl -e 'my @x = qw{a b c d e f}; print join ",", @x[0,3,4]'
a,d,e

      [download]

      On an unrelated note, there are problems with your open statements. Use of package variables can lead to all sorts of bugs that are hard to track down. Your six error messages are identical: how will you know which file generates "Can't open the output file ...". Look to using lexical filehandles and the 3-argument form of open. Consider the autodie pragma — you'll do less work and get better error reporting.

      — Ken

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        Thanks Ken! I will read this in the morning. It's 1:51 AM here :) The goal is to help someone determine which bids they are losing and manually doing it is very time consuming. Thanks! Kevin
[reply]

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