How to extract radiobutton / checkbox information with python from a pdf-file?

Question

i would like to get the radio-button / checkbox information from a pdf-document - I had a look at pdfplumber and pypdf2 - but was not able to find a solution with this modules.

I can parse the text using this code - but for the radio-buttons i get only the text - but no information which button (or checkbox) is selected.

import pdfplumber
import os
import sys

if __name__ == '__main__':
  path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(sys.argv[0])) 
  fn = os.path.join(path, "input.pdf")
  pdf = pdfplumber.open(fn)
  page = pdf.pages[0]
  text = page.extract_text()

I have also uploaded an example file here: https://easyupload.io/8y8k2v

Is there any way to get this information from the pdf-file using python?

Answer 1

I think i found a solution using pdfplumber - (probably not elegant - but i can check if the radio-buttons are selected or not)

Generally:

• i read all chars and all curves for all pages

• then i sort all elements by x and y (to get the chars and elements in the correct order like in the pdf)

• then i concatenate the cars and add also blanks when the distance between the chars is longer than in a word

• i check the pts-information for the carves and get so the information if the radio button is selected or not

• the final lines and yes/not informatin i store in a list line-by-line for furhter working

  import pdfplumber
  import os
  import sys
  
  fn = os.path.join(path, "input.pdf")
    pdf = pdfplumber.open(fn)
    finalContent = []
      for idx,page in enumerate(pdf.pages, start=1):  
        print(f"Reading page {idx}")
        contList = []
        for e in page.chars:             
          tmpRow = ["char", e["text"], e["x0"], e["y0"]]
          contList.append(tmpRow)
        for e in page.curves:
          tmpRow = ["curve", e["pts"], e["x0"], e["y0"]]
          contList.append(tmpRow)  
        contList.sort(key=lambda x: x[2])
        contList.sort(key=lambda x: x[3], reverse=True)
  
        workContent = []    
        workText = ""
        workDistCharX = False
        for e in contList:
          if e[0] == "char":
            if workDistCharX != False and \
               (e[2] - workDistCharX > 20 or e[3] - workDistCharY < -2):
                workText += " / "
            workText += e[1]
            workDistCharX = e[2]
            workDistCharY = e[3]
            continue
          if e[0] == "curve":
            if workText != "":
              workContent.append(workText)
              workText = ""
  
            if e[1][0][0] < 100:
              tmpVal = "SELECT-YES"
            else:
              tmpVal = "SELECT-NO"
  
            workContent.append(f"CURVE {tmpVal}, None, None")
  
        finalContent.extend(workContent)
        workContent = "\n".join(workContent)