Reading .doc File In Python Using Antiword In Windows (also .docx)

I tried reading a .doc file like - with open('file.doc', errors='ignore') as f: text = f.read() It did read that file but with huge junk, I can't remove that junk as I don't

Solution 1:

You can use antiword command line utility to do this, I know most of you would have tried it but still I wanted to share.

• Download antiword from here

• Extract the antiword folder to C:\ and add the path C:\antiword to your PATH environment variable.

Here is a sample of how to use it, handling docx and doc files:

import os, docx2txt
defget_doc_text(filepath, file):
    if file.endswith('.docx'):
       text = docx2txt.process(file)
       return text
    elif file.endswith('.doc'):
       # converting .doc to .docx
       doc_file = filepath + file
       docx_file = filepath + file + 'x'ifnot os.path.exists(docx_file):
          os.system('antiword ' + doc_file + ' > ' + docx_file)
          withopen(docx_file) as f:
             text = f.read()
          os.remove(docx_file) #docx_file was just to read, so deletingelse:
          # already a file with same name as doc exists having docx extension, # which means it is a different file, so we cant read itprint('Info : file with same name of doc exists having docx extension, so we cant read it')
          text = ''return text

Now call this function:

filepath ="D:\\input\\"
files = os.listdir(filepath)
for file in files:
    text = get_doc_text(filepath, file)
    print(text)

This could be good alternate way to read .doc file in Python on Windows.

Hope it helps, Thanks.

Solution 2:

Mithilesh's example is good, but it's simpler to directly use textract once you have antiword installed. Download antiword, and extract the antiword folder to C:\. Then add the antiword folder to your PATH environment variable. (instructions for adding to PATH here). Open a new terminal or command console to re-load your PATH env variable. Install textract with pip install textract.

Then you can use textract (which uses antiword for .doc files) like this:

import textract
text = textract.process('filename.doc')
text.decode('utf-8')  # converts from bytestring to string

If you are getting errors, try running the command antiword from a terminal/console to make sure it works. Also be sure the filepath to the .doc file is correct (e.g. use os.path.exists('filename.doc')).