Example: parsing lines of text from a PDF file

[adrienjoly]

Here is the code required to convert this PDF file into text:

const { PdfReader } = require("pdfreader");

let rows = {}; // indexed by y-position

function flushRows() {
  Object.keys(rows) // => array of y-positions (type: float)
    .sort((y1, y2) => parseFloat(y1) - parseFloat(y2)) // sort float positions
    .forEach((y) => console.log((rows[y] || []).join("")));
  rows = {}; // clear rows for next page
}

new PdfReader().parseFileItems("test/sample.pdf", (err, item) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error({ err });
  } else if (!item) {
    flushRows();
    console.log("END OF FILE");
  } else if (item.page) {
    flushRows(); // print the rows of the previous page
    console.log("PAGE:", item.page);
  } else if (item.text) {
    // accumulate text items into rows object, per line
    (rows[item.y] = rows[item.y] || []).push(item.text);
  }
});

Fork this example from parsing a CV/résumé.