将所有PDF文件转换为目录中的文本

Question

I just downloaded PDFMiner to convert PDF files to text. I convert files by executing this command on my terminal

python pdf2txt.py -o myOutput.txt simple1.pdf

It works fine, now I want to embed that function on my simple Python script. I would like to convert all PDF files on a directory

# Lets say I have an array with filenames on it
files = [
    'file1.pdf', 'file2.pdf', 'file3.pdf'
]

# And convert all PDF files to text
# By repeatedly executing pdf2txt.py
for x in range(0, len(files))
    # And run something like
    python pdf2txt.py -o output.txt files[x]

I also tried using os.system but a blinking window appeared (my terminal). I just wanted to convert all the files on my array to texts.

Answer 1

Use the subprocess module.

import subprocess

files = [
    'file1.pdf', 'file2.pdf', 'file3.pdf'
]
for f in files:
    cmd = 'python pdf2txt.py -o %s.txt %s' % (f.split('.')[0], f)
    run = subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
    out, err = run.communicate()

    # display errors if they occur    
    if err:
        print err

Read the subprocess documentation for more information.

Answer 2

There is an API to help you performing such tasks. Read the documentation .