Parsing a PDF file

[Richard Gaskin]

Dar Scott wrote:

 >> On Jul 8, 2016, at 9:44 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
 >> It's unfortunate that so many orgs release data useful to analysis
 >> in complex formats that inhibit such use.
...
 > To make it worse, documents for human consumption are claimed to be
 > the same when underneath there are big changes.  Tables are moved
 > around, rotated, have zeros converted to blanks, have commas added
 > and so on.
 >
 > You know that party bosses get files in useful forms.  I'd contact
 > the right people in the state government and get the right files.

Amen, brother Dar!

For all the people who pass around PDFs, when you ask them where it came 
from they just look a you with that flouride stare.  But PDF isn't an 
authoring format, it's a delivery format - everything in that format 
began life in something more malleable.


 > One thing that has worked for me for onetime analysis is trying
 > different file name extensions in downloading.  The right file might
 > be there.

Good thought.  Unfortunately with the URL Jim provided both .txt or .csv 
produce merely 404s.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com