Python Script to run a command over all files in a folder

Question

For converting pdf to text I am using the following command:

pdf2txt.py -o text.txt example.pdf # It will convert example.pdf to text.txt

But I have more than 1000 pdf files which I need to convert to text file first and then do the analysis.

Is there a way through which I can use this command to iterate over the pdf files and convert all of them?

Answer 1

I would suggest you to have a shell script:

for f (*.pdf) {pdf2txt.py -o $f $f.txt}

Then read all .txt files using python for your analysis.

Using only python to convert:

from subprocess import call
import glob

for pdf_file in glob.glob('*.pdf'): 
    call(["pdf2txt.py", "-o", pdf_file, pdf_file[:-3]+"txt"])

Answer 2

the python code went wrong on my win1o OS( OSError: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application), the for loop should be:

for pdf_file in glob.glob('*.pdf'):
    call(['python.exe','pdf2txt.py','-o',pdf_file[:-3]+'txt',pdf_file])

Be careful, the parameter of file i/o is opposite, if you remain the same order, your files would be overwritten by empty files...

Still thanks Gurupad Hegde, show me the way to covert files, it helps a lot!