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i would like to get the radio-button / checkbox information from a pdf-document - I had a look at pdfplumber and pypdf2 - but was not able to find a solution with this modules.

I can parse the text using this code - but for the radio-buttons i get only the text - but no information which button (or checkbox) is selected.

import pdfplumber
import os
import sys

if __name__ == '__main__':
  path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])) 
  fn = os.path.join(path, "input.pdf")
  pdf = pdfplumber.open(fn)
  page = pdf.pages[0]
  text = page.extract_text()

enter image description here enter image description here

I have also uploaded an example file here: https://easyupload.io/8y8k2v

Is there any way to get this information from the pdf-file using python?

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  • What specific output do you get returned from PDFplumber for the radio button and check boxes section shown in the diagram above? – Rich Lysakowski PhD Sep 12 '22 at 05:09
  • for the radio button i get the following information in the "curves" for "pts": [(71.01501112104108, 670.6846911268048), (71.01501112104108, 733.7477509951772), (71.18645030154539, 734.6096506512141), (71.67468000654205, 735.3403337748593), (72.40536240195908, 735.8285606645409), (73.26726325919724, 736.0000031333333), (538.7327051448029, 736.0000031333333), (539.5945294254684, 735.8285606645409), (540.3252576166789, 735.3403337748593), (540.8134933276813, ... ... ... ] – Rapid1898 Sep 13 '22 at 12:48

1 Answers1

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I think i found a solution using pdfplumber - (probably not elegant - but i can check if the radio-buttons are selected or not)

Generally:

  • i read all chars and all curves for all pages

  • then i sort all elements by x and y (to get the chars and elements in the correct order like in the pdf)

  • then i concatenate the cars and add also blanks when the distance between the chars is longer than in a word

  • i check the pts-information for the carves and get so the information if the radio button is selected or not

  • the final lines and yes/not informatin i store in a list line-by-line for furhter working

    import pdfplumber
import os
import sys

fn = os.path.join(path, "input.pdf")
  pdf = pdfplumber.open(fn)
  finalContent = []
    for idx,page in enumerate(pdf.pages, start=1):  
      print(f"Reading page {idx}")
      contList = []
      for e in page.chars:             
        tmpRow = ["char", e["text"], e["x0"], e["y0"]]
        contList.append(tmpRow)
      for e in page.curves:
        tmpRow = ["curve", e["pts"], e["x0"], e["y0"]]
        contList.append(tmpRow)  
      contList.sort(key=lambda x: x[2])
      contList.sort(key=lambda x: x[3], reverse=True)

      workContent = []    
      workText = ""
      workDistCharX = False
      for e in contList:
        if e[0] == "char":
          if workDistCharX != False and \
             (e[2] - workDistCharX > 20 or e[3] - workDistCharY < -2):
              workText += " / "
          workText += e[1]
          workDistCharX = e[2]
          workDistCharY = e[3]
          continue
        if e[0] == "curve":
          if workText != "":
            workContent.append(workText)
            workText = ""

          if e[1][0][0] < 100:
            tmpVal = "SELECT-YES"
          else:
            tmpVal = "SELECT-NO"

          workContent.append(f"CURVE {tmpVal}, None, None")

      finalContent.extend(workContent)
      workContent = "\n".join(workContent)
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