Equibase chart parser - Horse Racing Forum - PaceAdvantage.Com

osophy_junkie · 11-23-2005, 10:55 PM

For those interested I have written a parser for the equibase PDF charts. It can be found at: http://lamedomain.net/horses/chartparser/chartparse.zip. The chart parsing can take up to a minute on a Athlon 1.3 Ghz. During early testing I have seen it get hung up on charts and never stop running. If it runs for more than a couple of minutes, there was an error parsing the chart and you will need to kill the program.

This program converts the PDF to text and then parsers the text for relivent information. The text file I get from the PDF is very difficult to parse due to the way PDF files are formated. This program has known bugs and will not parse all charts correctly.

Running it consists of unzipping the zip file and then double clicking parser.exe, click the "Convert PDF" button, choose a PDF file, then click Open. During this time it will parse the PDF and output a CSV file with the same filename and a "csv" extension.

I have only tested it on Windows XP and with the box I developed it on. Please let me know if you have any problems running it. NOTE: The user uses this program at their own risk and is responsible for verifing the data is correct before making any handicapping decisions using it.

Enjoy!
Ed

Brian Flewwelling · 11-24-2005, 05:53 AM

I get an error running parser.exe

"libglib-2.0-0.dll cannot be found"

headhawg · 11-24-2005, 08:38 AM

Me too. Using Windows XP.

douglasw32 · 11-24-2005, 08:49 AM

yep me three

nomadpat · 11-24-2005, 10:08 AM

Same error here and I'm on 2000.

DJofSD · 11-24-2005, 10:59 AM

Dudes, try this link.

Good luck. Hopefully there won't be any more after this.

DJofSD · 11-24-2005, 11:31 AM

Not lucky.

Now it's looking for iconv.dll.

DJofSD · 11-24-2005, 11:48 AM

It goes on and on.

After the iconv.dll it complains about something it found in my Interbase (Borland data base) folder.

So much for turkey day computer fun.

Tom · 11-24-2005, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJofSD

It goes on and on.

After the iconv.dll it complains about something it found in my Interbase (Borland data base) folder.

So much for turkey day computer fun.

Go parse the turkey!

rokitman · 11-24-2005, 01:52 PM

It worked on the turkey. Getting lotsa errors on the pies.

osophy_junkie · 11-24-2005, 08:57 PM

The runtime files were suppose to be included in the zip file. Apparantly they are not or I added them incorrectly. I am out of town and do not have access to a computer that I test with, so it's just a guess.

The runtime files can be found at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/g...3.exe?download

douglasw32 · 11-24-2005, 10:28 PM

Genius...not sure what to do with it....some chart person let me know, but it worked...opened in excell....WOW!!! thanks for sharing

rokitman · 11-25-2005, 10:41 AM

Hey Doug, did you download the whole file that link above wants to send? Or did you do it one dll at a time?

douglasw32 · 11-25-2005, 08:12 PM

Downloaded the file above 2nd link in the post...
Installed the RUNTIME LIBRARYS the whole setup.

Then downloaded the parser, first link over again, unzipped it and it ran fine.

highnote · 11-28-2005, 12:02 AM

I know it's asking alot, but it would be great if someone would write a parser that is open source. That way the racing community could add to it. Perhaps the originator of the code would act as a moderator and approve of any worthwhile additions to the code.

Just a thought.