Question

4

Regular expression that matches all multiple separate expressions

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 939 / 2 Years ago, thu, june 30, 2022, 8:22:01

It's admission time in India and I am trying my best to get the best college I can for engg.

I have got a pdf file which contains a table which looks like

enter image description here

It contains about 2500+ entries and I have 3 days time.

So to do some smart work sorting out the right colleges for me, I need to match the contents to multiple regexp, like

Should contain either of the words "computer" or "information"

should contain both GE and FALSE

Should match the regexp [0-9]{5,}

I first tried opening it in libreoffice calc but it opens in libreoffice Draw. I tried pdftohtml and pdftotext but both mess it badly.

Finally I came at pdfgrep, but it does not work in combination with grep as,

pdfgrep regexp1 ./locn to file|grep regexp2|grep regexp3

gives error

Binary file (standard input) matches

So whatever I have to do is with a single regexp to be put in pdfgrep, which will match all regexp's that I need.

EDIT: You can download the pdf here.

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vigorousom

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3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago rhaeams · Accepted Answer

pdfgrep works on pages, not lines so instead of .* to match anything, you need [^ ]* to match anything but a newline and so ensure that you're matching the same line. For some reason, [ ] is treated as an n (the is ignored) by pdfgrep so some trickery is needed. Try this:

pdfgrep  '(Computer|Information)'[^$'

']'*GE'[^$'

']*'FALSE'[^$'

']*'[0-9]{5,}' Closing_Rank_After_Round_III.pdf

On my system, this returns 82 lines:

  17    DBLCSE4B                                          Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            33161

  33    DBLITY4B                                          Information Technology         GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            38913

  74    DHACSE4B                                              Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            36528

  97    DJKCSE4B                                              Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            22030

 108     DJTCSE4B  Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, J&K Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            41598

 112   DMUCOE4B    Mizoram University, Aizawl             Computer Engineering              GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            39759

 124    DMUITY4B   Mizoram University, Aizawl   Information Technology             GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            41723

 132    DTUCSE4B   Tezpur University, Tezpur    Computer Science & Engineering     GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            36567

 161    IAAITY4B                                              Information Technology             GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            19303

 173    IALITR5M                                               M.Tech Information Technology      GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            12723

 181     IALITY4B                                              Information Technology             GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            10649

 187    IGHCSE4B                                               Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            20054

 195    IGWITY4B   Information Technology & Management,        Information Technology            GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            18357

 195    IGWITY4B   Information Technology & Management,        Information Technology            GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            18357

 200     IJLCSE4B  of Information Technology Design &           Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            19427

 200     IJLCSE4B  of Information Technology Design &           Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            19427

 206     IJLECE4B  of Information Technology Design &                                             GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            21863

 211    IJLMEC4B   of Information Technology Design &           Mechanical Engineering         GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            22433

 217    IKOCOE4B                                                Computer Engineering      GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            16837

 223    IKPCOE4B   Design & Manufacturing, Kancheepuram,        Computer Engineering      GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            14202

 247    IVDCOS4B                                               Computer Science                     GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            18374

 252     IVDITY4B                                              Information Technology               GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            19973

 284    NAGCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Agartala Computer Science & Engineering         GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            252288

 285    NAGCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Agartala Computer Science & Engineering         GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            27007

 443    NAPCSE4B                                               Computer Science & Engineering         GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            338141

 444    NAPCSE4B                                               Computer Science & Engineering         GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            26762

 505    NBHCSE4B                                      Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             11495

 608    NCACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Calicut Computer Science & Engineering       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    LD      657523

 735    NDUCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    AN       80861

 736    NDUCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    WB       19088

 737    NDUCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            11900

 772    NDUITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Information Technology     GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    AN       95756

 773    NDUITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Information Technology     GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    WB       26872

 774    NDUITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Durgapur Information Technology     GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            16715

 811    NGOCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Goa   Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            102938

 812    NGOCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Goa   Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            13100

 862    NHACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             34510

 863    NHACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            13867

 933    NITCSE4B   Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Ranchi Computer Science & Engineering     GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             10898

 955    NITITY4B   Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Ranchi Information Technology                  GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             23647

 956    NITITY4B   Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra Ranchi Information Technology                  GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            14055

1080    NJLCSE4B                                            Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             13424

1081    NJLCSE4B                                            Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            12160

1129    NJLITY4B                                            Information Technology       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             20270

1130    NJLITY4B                                            Information Technology       GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            14973

1172    NJMCSE4B                                            Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             22151

1173    NJMCSE4B                                            Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            13379

1280    NKUITY4B                                     Information Technology     GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             14993

1281    NKUITY4B                                     Information Technology     GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            12373

1317   NMGCSE4B    National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             66882

1318   NMGCSE4B    National Institute of Technology, Meghalaya Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            30457

1354    NMRCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Manipur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            335104

1355    NMRCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Manipur Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            29987

1386    NMZCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Mizoram Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            780732

1387    NMZCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Mizoram Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            33351

1500    NNGCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Nagaland Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            32788

1538    NPACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Patna Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             26912

1539    NPACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Patna Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            17852

1569    NPAITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Patna Information Technology         GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             31050

1570    NPAITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Patna      Information Technology            GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            21633

1588    NPYCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Puducherry Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            212537

1589    NPYCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Puducherry Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            13738

1655    NRACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Raipur Computer Science & Engineering       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             30599

1656    NRACSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Raipur Computer Science & Engineering       GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            16002

1686    NRAITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Raipur Information Technology              GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             54124

1687    NRAITY4B   National Institute of Technology, Raipur Information Technology              GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            20012

1746   NROCEC5M National Institute of Technology, Rourkela    and M.Tech. Computer Science 5-    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             16014

1812    NROCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Rourkela Computer Science & Engineering     GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             12845

1821   NROCSS5M    National Institute of Technology, Rourkela M.Tech. Information Security 5-    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             16350

1822   NROCSS5M    National Institute of Technology, Rourkela M.Tech. Information Security 5-    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            10803

1986    NSICSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Silchar Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             50138

1987    NSICSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Silchar Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            22448

2044    NSKCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Sikkim  Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            353234

2045    NSKCSE4B   National Institute of Technology, Sikkim  Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            24788

2173    NSRCSE4B   National Institution of Technology, Srinagar Computer Science & Engineering       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             39818

2174    NSRCSE4B   National Institution of Technology, Srinagar Computer Science & Engineering       GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            22786

2259    NSTCOE4B                                            Computer Engineering       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    DD      173213

2260    NSTCOE4B                                            Computer Engineering       GE    FALSE HOMESTATE    GJ       10724

2427    NUDCSE4B                                     Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE HOMESTATE             46818

2428    NUDCSE4B                                     Computer Science & Engineering    GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            18978

2478    NUSITY4B   Assam University, Silchar               Information Technology             GE    FALSE HOMESTATE            107749

2479    NUSITY4B   Assam University, Silchar               Information Technology             GE    FALSE OTHERSTATE            38122

The $' ' is called an ANSI C escape sequence. These are a portable and robust method of specifying certain problematic characters (such as non-printing characters and quotes) to programs that cannot recognize them in other ways. In this case, I am using them in a character class. When a character class begins with ^, it means "match anything except the characters in this class. So, [^$' '] means "match anything except a newline character". This ensures that the matches wer are looking for are all on the same line.