pdf-text-extraction

name	pdf-text-extraction
description	Extract text from PDF files using Python libraries (PyPDF2, pdfplumber) for content analysis and classification.

PDF Text Extraction

Libraries

• PyPDF2: Fast, good for simple text extraction
• pdfplumber: Better for complex layouts, tables

Usage Pattern

import PyPDF2

def extract_pdf_text(filepath, max_pages=3):
    """Extract text from first few pages of a PDF for classification."""
    text = ""
    try:
        with open(filepath, 'rb') as f:
            reader = PyPDF2.PdfReader(f)
            for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages[:max_pages]):
                text += page.extract_text() or ""
    except Exception:
        pass
    return text

Tips

• Reading only the first 2-3 pages is usually sufficient for topic classification
• Some PDFs have no extractable text (scanned images) - fallback to filename
• Always wrap in try/except as some PDFs may be corrupted