Extract and Visualize Data from PDF Tables with PDFplumber in Python

Howdy all! I recently published a story that was based on some data analysis I did of a report I obtained from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services in VA. I wanted to share a quick walkthrough of how I extracted the data from tables in a PDF using a Python module called PDFplumber. Here's a link to the text version with the code - https://github.com/gam32bit/tdo

By using PDFplumber, I was able to create a graph which shows the trend at the center of my article. I hope some of you can take something away from this walkthrough that will help you supplement your own reporting, especially if you're interested in data journalism.

I'm by no means an expert coder, very much a beginner, so if there are things I could have done better let me know. That being said, I hope this walkthrough proves that any journalist can use programming to enhance their work, so you should try it if you haven't already!

PDFplumber docs - https://github.com/jsvine/pdfplumber
Python tutorials - https://www.youtube.com/@Socratica

jwcaterine.com

#python #walkthrough #journalism

Видео Extract and Visualize Data from PDF Tables with PDFplumber in Python канала JW Caterine