Solved: Re: Table based on header from multiple PDFs in a ...

andersthyme · ‎02-07-2022

Dear all,

I am new to this forum, and therefore apologize in advance if I am missing anything, but I really hope you can assist.

I have a folder with PDF files all containing multiple tables. For each file there is a table with header "event assessment". It will not be the same table number each time, why I need to to look for the header instead of just "TABLE009" etc.

Also each file-name contains the item number.

What I need is for my PowerBI to read all the PDFs, open the table for each of these with header "event assessment" and add a column with the file name (i.e. item number).

Is this possible?

Thanks in advance!

Kr Anders

Daryl-Lynch-Bzy · ‎02-07-2022

Hi @andersthyme - I am going to say maybe, but it is very difficult to trouble-shoot in this forum.

To understand the problem, you need to import the PDF files manually to understand the difference between each PDF from in the Advanced Editor screen. Eventually, if you are lucky, a pattern will appear. This pattern can be turned into a Power Query function. The function will open the PDF file, then try to do the conversion. If the first approach (e.g. find table named "X") fails, it tries the second (e.g. find table with field name "abc"), and so on until if reports the PDF as an error.

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andersthyme · ‎02-08-2022

Thanks Daryl and KNP. I'll give the approach you describe a go (i.e. import one by one and examine the advanced editor screen); it will be quite difficult to recreate these PDF's which at the moment are confidential/contains sensitive data. Thanks for taking your time to assist!

KNP · ‎02-07-2022

If possible, please provide a link to one of the PDF's, if data is sensitive then you could recreate a sample PDF or two for us to work with. As @Daryl-Lynch-Bzy said, it is difficult to solve this without something to work with.

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Daryl-Lynch-Bzy · ‎02-07-2022

Hi @andersthyme - I am going to say maybe, but it is very difficult to trouble-shoot in this forum.

To understand the problem, you need to import the PDF files manually to understand the difference between each PDF from in the Advanced Editor screen. Eventually, if you are lucky, a pattern will appear. This pattern can be turned into a Power Query function. The function will open the PDF file, then try to do the conversion. If the first approach (e.g. find table named "X") fails, it tries the second (e.g. find table with field name "abc"), and so on until if reports the PDF as an error.