How to convert PDF to CSV with tabula-py?

Question

In Python 3, I have a PDF file "Ativos_Fevereiro_2018_servidores_rj.pdf" with 6,041 pages. I'm on a machine with Ubuntu

On each page there is text at the top of the page, two lines. And below a table, with header and two columns. Each table in 36 rows, less on the last page

At the end of each page, after the tables, there is also a line of text

I want to create a CSV from this PDF, considering only the tables in the pages. And ignoring the texts before and after the tables

Initially I tested the tabula-py. But it generates an empty file:

from tabula import convert_into

convert_into("Ativos_Fevereiro_2018_servidores_rj.pdf", "test_s.csv", output_format="csv")

Please, does anyone know of another method to use tabula-py for this type of demand?

Or another way to convert PDF to CSV in this file type?

Answer 1

Ok, I've found the issue: you have to set spreadsheet=True and keep utf-8 encoding:

df = tabula.read_pdf("Ativos_Fevereiro_2018_servidores_rj.pdf", encoding='utf-8', spreadsheet=True, pages='1-6041')

In the picture below I tested it with just the first page (because your file is huge):

You can save the DataFrame as csv afterwards:

df.to_csv('otuput.csv', encoding='utf-8')

Edit:

Ok, the error could be a java-memory issue. To make it faster I added the pages option. And there also was an encoding problem, so encoding='utf-8' added to the csv export. If you keep running into the java-error, try parse it in chunks, e.g. pages='1-300'. I just did all 6041 (on a 64GB RAM Machine), it worked fine.