Find every number in a PDF?

Hey Apple Support,

I was given the task of finding every number in a 70 page PDF document. Instead of just going through manually, would there be a way of searching for ANYTHING including a number? I don't want it to find a specific number, I want it to find every single number in the document. Is there any way this is possible? You can link any sort of software that may help with this. I also do have Acrobat Pro, so that is an option for use. Let me know what you got!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 19, 2014 12:55 PM

22 replies

Tony T1

Level 6

10,247 points

Mar 20, 2014 9:05 AM in response to mns579

mns579 wrote:

Another approach.

A better approach 🙂

(Preview should add this search ability)

Mar 20, 2014 10:03 AM in response to Tony T1

Tony T1 wrote:

(Preview should add this search ability)

It already does.

Hit 'command-F' and paste

"1" | "2" | "3" | "4" | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9" | "0"

Use 'command-G' to cycle through the results.

Tony T1

Level 6

10,247 points

Mar 20, 2014 10:13 AM in response to Phil Stokes

Nice one! 🙂

Tony T1

Level 6

10,247 points

Mar 20, 2014 12:19 PM in response to Phil Stokes

Still, would be much better if it Apple could have Preview handle regex

Tony T1

Level 6

10,247 points

Mar 20, 2014 12:22 PM in response to Phil Stokes

Phil Stokes wrote:

Ideally, if possible, you'd extract this data out of pdf into rtf or even better to plain txt format.

Already done, the OP is working with a plain text file of data ("Report.txt")

Mar 20, 2014 12:24 PM in response to Tony T1

I thought we were dealing with pdfs. If you're dealing with plain text, you should be able to advise him of the next move.

Mar 20, 2014 12:39 PM in response to Tony T1

Since you seem to have a better grasp of what's going on, I'll leave it to you. It's bed-time where I am, but I'll check in tomorrow if I get the chance.

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Find every number in a PDF?