Perl 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. Perl

use chilkat();

$success = 0;

#  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 = chilkat::CkPdf->new();
$success = $pdf->LoadFile("qa_data/pdf/spans_table.pdf");
if ($success == 0) {
    print $pdf->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

$json = chilkat::CkJsonObject->new();
$jsonOut = chilkat::CkJsonObject->new();

#  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 == 0) {
    print $pdf->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

print "Tables found: " . $jsonOut->IntOf("count") . "\r\n";
print $jsonOut->IntOf("tables[0].rows") . " rows x " . $jsonOut->IntOf("tables[0].columns") . " columns" . "\r\n";

#  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 < $count_j) {
    $jsonOut->put_J($j);
    $rowSpan = $jsonOut->IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].rowSpan");
    $colSpan = $jsonOut->IntOf("tables[0].cells[j].colSpan");
    if (($rowSpan > 1) or ($colSpan > 1)) {
        print "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)" . "\r\n";
    }

    $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)