How to Convert PDF to Excel Using Python: The Ultimate Automation Guid

# Sample automation workflow
import camelot
tables = camelot.read_pdf('financial_report.pdf', flavor='lattice')
tables[0].to_excel('extracted_data.xlsx')

import tabula
# Extract all tables
tabula.convert_into("input.pdf", "output.xlsx", output_format="xlsx")
# Advanced usage
dfs = tabula.read_pdf("report.pdf", pages='all', multiple_tables=True)

import camelot
# Detect lattice tables (visible borders)
tables = camelot.read_pdf('invoice.pdf', flavor='lattice')
# Parse stream tables (invisible structure)
tables = camelot.read_pdf('clinical_data.pdf', flavor='stream')
# Export to Excel
tables.export('output.xlsx', f='excel')

import pdfplumber
import pandas as pd

with pdfplumber.open("scanned.pdf") as pdf:
    all_data = []
    for page in pdf.pages:
        table = page.extract_table()
        if table:
            df = pd.DataFrame(table[1:], columns=table[0])
            all_data.append(df)
    
    final_df = pd.concat(all_data)
    final_df.to_excel("output.xlsx")

from pdf2image import convert_from_path
import pytesseract
import pandas as pd

images = convert_from_path('scanned_report.pdf')
text_data = []

for img in images:
    text = pytesseract.image_to_string(img)
    text_data.append(text.split('\n'))

pd.DataFrame(text_data).to_excel('ocr_output.xlsx')

pip install tabula-py camelot-py pdfplumber pdf2image pytesseract openpyxl

# Windows: https://github.com/UB-Mannheim/tesseract/wiki
# Mac: brew install tesseract

import camelot
import pandas as pd

# Extract tables from pages 5-7
tables = camelot.read_pdf('Q3_report.pdf', 
                          pages='5-7',
                          flavor='lattice',
                          table_areas=['50,500,800,100'],
                          columns=['75,200,350,500'])

# Combine tables and clean data
combined_df = pd.concat([table.df for table in tables])
combined_df.columns = ['Account', 'Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3']
combined_df.replace('[\$,]', '', regex=True, inplace=True)

# Export formatted Excel
with pd.ExcelWriter('financials.xlsx') as writer:
    combined_df.to_excel(writer, sheet_name='Quarterly Results')
    # Add formatting
    workbook = writer.book
    worksheet = writer.sheets['Quarterly Results']
    money_fmt = workbook.add_format({'num_format': '$#,##0'})
    worksheet.set_column('B:D', 15, money_fmt)

from openpyxl import load_workbook

wb = load_workbook('output.xlsx')
ws = wb.active
ws.merge_cells('A1:D1')
ws['A1'] = "Consolidated Financial Statement"
wb.save('formatted_report.xlsx')

# Verify row counts
assert len(combined_df) == 87, "Missing rows detected"

# Check number formats
assert combined_df['Q3'].dtype == 'float64', "Currency conversion failed"

import glob
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor

pdf_files = glob.glob('/invoices/*.pdf')

def convert_pdf_to_excel(pdf_path):
    tables = camelot.read_pdf(pdf_path)
    output_path = f"/excel_output/{pdf_path.split('/')[-1].replace('.pdf','.xlsx')}"
    tables.export(output_path, f='excel')

# Parallel processing
with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=8) as executor:
    executor.map(convert_pdf_to_excel, pdf_files)

table_settings = {"vertical_strategy": "explicit", 
                  "explicit_vertical_lines": [50, 150, 300]}
page.extract_table(table_settings)

camelot.read_pdf('doc.pdf', 
                 backend='poppler', 
                 suppress_stdout=True,
                 line_scale=40)  # Higher values = fewer false positives

data = []
with pdfplumber.open('scan.pdf') as pdf:
    for page in pdf.pages:
        words = page.extract_words(x_tolerance=2)
        # Reconstruct rows by y-coordinate
        rows = {}
        for word in words:
            y = round(word['top'])
            rows.setdefault(y, []).append(word['text'])
        data.extend(rows.values())

# Pipeline
pdfs → pdf2image → pytesseract → pandas → validation → Excel

def auto_detect_engine(pdf_path):
    if is_scanned(pdf_path):  # Check pixel/word ratio
        return "pdfplumber"
    elif has_visible_borders(pdf_path):  # Image analysis
        return "camelot-lattice"
    else:
        return "camelot-stream"

def validate_extraction(df):
    assert not df.empty, "Empty DataFrame"
    assert df.isnull().mean().max() < 0.2, "Excessive missing values"
    assert df.iloc[:,0].nunique() == len(df), "Duplicate rows detected"

from openpyxl.styles import Font, Alignment

for row in ws.iter_rows(min_row=1, max_row=1):
    for cell in row:
        cell.font = Font(bold=True)
        cell.alignment = Alignment(horizontal='center')

ws.freeze_panes = 'A2'
ws.auto_filter.ref = ws.dimensions