Tables in PDF files
I have come across so many public data repositories that hold data in PDF format. Other websites have tables within documents such as annual reports etc., also in PDF format. A data source for PDFs or tables from PDFs would be awesome!
Gogula Aryalingam
shared this idea
Thanks everyone for your feedback/votes!
We’re actively working on this new connector. You can find an early demo in the recording of the Power Query session at the Microsoft Business Applications Summit: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/businessapplicationssummit/video/BAS2018-2167
Please stay tuned to the Power BI blog for further announcements.
269 comments
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Niko Suomi commented
Can this read hand-written tables, if those are scanned and then saved as pdf-file?
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KrisW
commented
SEPT 2018 UPDATE: I am testing the PDF Import/Connector & have already found minor issues. Who/How/Where do I report?
IN BRIEF - I have "sample data" G/L Ledger 51 pages. PBI is not bringing in column headers which is not a big deal, but in skipping the headers it is merging any data where there is only 1 space between columns. EXAMPLE: PERIOD & SOURCE of 1 PJ became 1PJ & ACCOUNT_NUM & ACCOUNT_DESC of 21200 TRADE COLLECTORS became 21200TRADE COLLECTORS - these 2 are easy enough to "split columns" to fix.HOWEVER, AMOUNT & DESCRIPTION were also merged so instead of -409.09 Pre-conversion purchase, I have -409.09Pre-conversion purchase. There is not a decimal in every amount & the amount total digits can vary. While it is highly unlikely that our company will connect to PDFs on a regular basis, we feel that this is an important feature for PBI.
Our own software has no problems with this sample file. Tableau merges fields same as PBI, but at least it leaves the space so that the fields can be "split"
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Kawabata Yoshihiro commented
Nice, 'STARTED' status 😁
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Sam
commented
@Miguel
The summit is over - and It is Mid 2018 - when in the PDF connector scheduled -
Randy
commented
This is obviously a much needed data source, any update on its release will be appreciated
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Fabio
commented
Any updates or potential release date?
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Mike
commented
Any news on when this feature will be released?
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Mike
commented
Is there any news on when this feature will be released?
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edh
commented
Are we at the end of 2017 or early 2018 yet?
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Stephen Hancox
commented
Any updates on this one?
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Andrew
commented
Where does this update stand with occurring soon?
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Ryan
commented
I'm also looking forward to this feature. We currently do bluebeam take-off work for construction, after which I export to CSV and run through Power BI. I would love to get more granular access to the data contained within.
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Dave
commented
Hey Miquel, can you provide an update? Surely your comment in August for one of the top ranked ideas warrants an update. What does Planned actually mean?
We are now in April, can you comment that it will or won't be released in the May release?
Come on give us a bone here... -
AJ
commented
Any update on the ETA for this? Really looking forward to it!
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sam thompson
commented
Great plan, what's the timeframe?
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Javier
commented
Early 2018? Month?
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Nate
commented
Any update on the ETA for this? Really looking forward to it!
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Mike Honey
commented
While we wait for a Connector solution (which would be great), I'm having some success at this task using the open-source Tabula project.
It has supporting automation/scripting projects (e.g. tabula-py for python), but in almost all cases manual extract design and post-extract data transformation is required. I guess this is due to the imprecise nature of PDF tables.
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Anonymous
commented
This is a very useful connector. The Internet has a lot of information in PDF, which can be used in complex analysis.
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Andrew
commented
Hi - is there an expected release for this? Hopefully early 2018 = March update!