PdfPageBase.ExtractText: String must be exactly one character long

[Henry]

Unhandled exception. System.FormatException: String must be exactly one character long.

   at System.Convert.ToChar(String value, IFormatProvider provider)

   at Syncfusion.Pdf.PdfPageBase.ExtractText(TextLineCollection& textLineCollection)

What can I specify to work around this? My program works fine on "clean" PDFs, but my clients often send me messed up files. I can share the test file that triggers this if needed. Email me at hcobb at telegenisys dot com

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

As you have mentioned, the specific exception occurs with the messed up files. Can you provide a confidential dummy input document that caused the specific exception you mentioned, so we can investigate the issue and assist you further in this.

[Henry]

I have the PDF that bombs but your forms won't let me upload PDFs (naturally).

Email me and I'll respond with the file.

[Henry]

Trying 7z for the bad file

Attachment: TestFile_45d97e84.7z

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

Thank you for sharing the details. We are currently validating on this and will provide the further details shortly

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

On our further analysis, we found that in the reported document some of the text glyphs are not added properly, Due to the reported exception occurring on our end. And we have confirmed the issue with "Format exception occurs while extracting text from the PDF file" as a defect in our product and the fix will be included in our upcoming weekly NuGet release which will be expected on February 1st week.

Please use the below feedback link to track the status of the reported bug.

https://www.syncfusion.com/feedback/40757/format-exception-occurs-while-extracting-text-from-the-pdf-file

Note: After the fix, some of the invalid glyphs are not extracted properly. You can find the excepted output text file after the fix.

https://www.syncfusion.com/downloads/support/directtrac/general/txt/ExtractText-768816761

[Henry]

It is acceptable that your code return garbage output from garbage input.

Crashing in the middle of your code with no means of recovery is the problem here.

Just return that a section was invalid so that the user code can mask that out please.

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

As of now, we could not change our current architecture, We have compared this with Adobe Acrobat Pro. Adobe acrobat also extracted the content with the garbage output. So as of now, we will resolve the exception and update you the patch as promised before

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

We are glad to announce that our Essential Studio 2022 Volume 4 Service Pack Release V20.4.0.48 is rolled out and is available for download under the following link.

https://www.syncfusion.com/forums/180292/essential-studio-2022-volume-4-service-pack-release-v20-4-0-48-is-available-for-download

So, we do not have any weekly release this week and Fix will be included in upcoming weekly release (February 7th, 2023)

We thank you for your support and appreciate your patience in waiting for this release. Please get in touch with us if you would require any further assistance.

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

We have included the include the fix for this issue “Format exception occurs while extracting text from the PDF file” fix in our latest weekly release (20.4.0.49).

Please use the below link to download our latest weekly NuGet,

NuGet Link: NuGet Gallery | Syncfusion.Pdf.Net.Core 20.4.0.49

[Koste Budinoski]

This is still happening with a PDF document I have on my side 

System.FormatException: String must be exactly one character long.

Link to the PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DP6rs_T3gz7O10Z1lJlSKgAPNP-8FU5Y/view?usp=sharing

Using latest Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer.AspNet.Core.Windows package version 

<PackageReference Include="Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer.AspNet.Core.Windows" Version="21.1.41" />

Example code:

var loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument(new FileStream(@"file_path_here", FileMode.Open));
foreach (PdfPageBase page in loadedDocument.Pages)
{
page.ExtractText(out var lineCollection);
}

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

Since our 2023 volume 1 SP1 release is expected to be rolled out in the upcoming week. So there will be no weekly release this week. We will include the fix for the reported issue in our upcoming weekly NuGet release (May 9th,2023), once our Volume 1 SP1 is rolled out which we excepted at the start of May.

You can track the status of the feature using the following feedback link.

https://www.syncfusion.com/feedback/40757/format-exception-occurs-while-extracting-text-from-the-pdf-file

Disclaimer: “Inclusion of this solution in the weekly release may change due to other factors including but not limited to QA checks and works reprioritization.

[Irfana Jaffer Sadhik]

We have included the include the fix for this issue “System.FormatException occurs while extracting text from the messed PDF file” fix in our latest weekly release (21.2.4). Please use the below link to download our latest weekly NuGet,

NuGet : https://www.nuget.org/packages/Syncfusion.Pdf.Net.Core/21.2.4

[Henry]

Thanks, will test.