File Content Extraction 26.3
Filter SDK Java Programming Guide

# Table Detection for PDF Files

PDF files often contain data presented in a tabular form. However, there is no information about the table stored within the PDF itself – the text is simply placed in an arrangement that looks like a table to the human eye. When this data is filtered, it can be very difficult to reconstruct the table.

Table detection attempts to recognize tables within PDF pages, and to reconstruct them before they are output. For each page of the document, File Content Extraction outputs the contents of each table first, and then outputs all remaining text on the page.

OpenText recommends that tab delimited output is also enabled when using table detection. This means that any tables detected appear in the output text in tab delimited format.

To enable table detection and tab delimited output

- In the Java API, call the `setTableDetection` and `setTabDelimited` methods on the `filter` object, for example:

      filter.setTableDetection(true);
      filter.setTabDelimited(true);

- In `formats.ini`, set the following parameters. (This is an alternative approach - you do not need to do this if you have configured this feature through the API).

      [Options]
      TableDetection=TRUE
      TabDelimited=TRUE

NOTE: Table detection is only available with the `pdf2sr` reader. To enable this reader, set the following configuration parameter in `formats.ini`:

    [Formats]
    230=pdf2

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Version 26.3 | Last updated July 2026

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Product: File Content Extraction 26.3

Topic Title: Table Detection for PDF Files