Looping through PDF files to extract specific data using Uipath

Question

I have a bunch of PDF documents which are basically Invoices and I want to extract the information like Invoice No, Issue Date, Total Amt etc. Can anyone please tell how I can automate this using UiPath.

Answer 1

Hi Rashi, you can access all the files, if they are in a same directory using 'Directory.getFiles(File_Path)' and then you can loop through them using 'For Each'. You can simply use 'Read PDF with OCR' to read the pdf files and extract the complete texts out of it:

Answer 2

Hi Rashi,

I actually had this same issue and I figured it out. Maybe see if this helps you out:-

1. Place a 'Sequence' in your main workflow area.
2. Choose 'Select Folder' activity block to let UiPath "find" where your PDF files with the text, is located on your PC.
   • You need to then choose "Properties" on the right-hand side, and assign this "Location" to a variable. (Please keep in mind that variables CANNOT HAVE blank spaces or punctuation or math symbols. The only exception is use of an underscore (_).)
   • In addition ​you have to set the same variable name in the Variables Panel (at the bottom of your screen) because if you do not do that, an error will appear at this point in your workflow.
3. Now, you can either put a 'Read PDF With OCR' or a 'Read PDF Text' block to capture text from the PDF files on your PC. ==> The 'Read PDF With OCR' activity block is better in the sense that BOTH text and images are captured (i.e. better Data Scraping); I found that the 'Read PDF Text' unfortunately ignores images which look like text but are not real text.
4. An alternate to (3) is via a 'Get PDF' or 'Get PDF Text' activity block.

Hope this helps!

Best of luck to you! :)

- Dave C.

Comments

Hi Dave, thank you sharing your valuable answer. Can you also share the workflow's screenshot?

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Hi Rashi,

Because I am doing my UiPath workflow from an office PC, and I am currently responding on my home/personal PC (without the UiPath program), I will not be able to unfortunately share screenshots of the workflow. Also, with my work laptop, there's much client information that is very confidential to my employer, and I'm not permitted to disclose those information in public. (My personal PC does not have UiPath.)

My sincere apologies for this inconvenience, as it would also have helped me to view screenshots of anything that would require visual aid.

Very Best,

- Dave Chandra

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Thanks Dave, I understand your concern. No issues about the screenshots. Your answer is quite helpful. I am upvoting your answer too.