From 2 columns of text to 1

Question

I'm trying to convert my 2 text columns to 1.

I am working with this Biblical text in PDF format (source), which I'm extracting using the pdftools package:

text <- pdf_text("NewKingJamesBible.pdf")

> length(text) #Total number of pages of document
[1] 1815 

This gives me a character string with the length of the length of the PDF file. To access page 60 and save it to a txt file (I'd later copy this to WORD), one can do:

fileConn <- file("page_60.txt")
writeLines(text[60], fileConn)
close(fileConn)

Every object inside text is a page. And every page is divided into two columns. You read first the left column and then the right one.

However, I need to have all the text in 1 column for each page. Is it possible to do this in R?

This is what the output text for page 60 looks like:

  16

  Then they journeyed from Bethel. And    These were the sons of Jacob who were

when there was but a little distance to   born to him in Padan Aram.

go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in

childbirth, and she had hard labor.       27

                                            Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at

                                          Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron),

17

  Now it came to pass, when she was in    where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.

hard labor, that the midwife said to her,

"Do not fear; you will have this son      28

                                            Now the days of Isaac were one

also."                                    hundred and eighty years.

18

  And so it was, as her soul was          29

                                            So Isaac breathed his last and died,

departing (for she died), that she called and was gathered to his people, being

his name Ben-Oni; but his father called   old and full of days. And his sons Esau

him Benjamin.                             and Jacob buried him.

19

  So Rachel died and was buried on the

way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).      36Now this is the genealogy of Esau,

20                                        who is Edom.

  And Jacob set a pillar on her grave,

which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to  2

this day.                                  Esau took his wives from the daughters

                                          of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon

21                                        the Hittite; Aholibamah the daughter of

  Then Israel journeyed and pitched his   Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

tent beyond the tower of Eder.

                                          3

22                                         and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter,

  And it happened, when Israel dwelt in   sister of Nebajoth.

that land, that Reuben went and lay with

Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel 4

heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob      Now Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and

were twelve:                              Basemath bore Reuel.

                                          5

23

  the sons of Leah were Reuben,            And Aholibamah bore Jeush, Jaalam,

Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi,      and Korah. These were the sons of

Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;             Esau who were born to him in the land

                                          of Canaan.

24

  the sons of Rachel were Joseph and      6

Benjamin;                                  Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his

                                          daughters, and all the persons of his

25                                        household, his cattle and all his animals,

  the    sons    of   Bilhah,    Rachel's and all his goods which he had gained

maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;       in the land of Canaan, and went to a

26

                                          country away from the presence of his

  and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's          brother Jacob.

maidservant, were Gad and Asher.

And this is the same in dput form:

16 Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she [r]suffered severe labor.      
17 When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.”    
18 It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him [s]Ben-oni; but his father called him [t]Benjamin.    
19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).    
20 Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.    
21 Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the [u]tower of [v]Eder.     
22 It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.
The Sons of Israel
Now there were twelve sons of Jacob—     
23 the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and   Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;     
24 the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;     
25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali;     
26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.     
27 Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.      
28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.      
29 Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, an old man [w]of ripe age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.     
Esau Moves
36 Now these are the records of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).
2 Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite;     
3 also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.     
4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel,
5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.     
6 Then Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all [x]his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his goods which he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land away from his brother Jacob.

dput output:

"16\r\n  Then they journeyed from Bethel. And    These were the sons of Jacob who were\r\nwhen there was but a little distance to   born to him in Padan Aram.\r\ngo to Ephrath, Rachel labored in\r\nchildbirth, and she had hard labor.       27\r\n                                            Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at\r\n                                          Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron),\r\n17\r\n  Now it came to pass, when she was in    where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.\r\nhard labor, that the midwife said to her,\r\n\"Do not fear; you will have this son      28\r\n                                            Now the days of Isaac were one\r\nalso.\"                                    hundred and eighty years.\r\n18\r\n  And so it was, as her soul was          29\r\n                                            So Isaac breathed his last and died,\r\ndeparting (for she died), that she called and was gathered to his people, being\r\nhis name Ben-Oni; but his father called   old and full of days. And his sons Esau\r\nhim Benjamin.                             and Jacob buried him.\r\n19\r\n  So Rachel died and was buried on the\r\nway to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).      36Now this is the genealogy of Esau,\r\n20                                        who is Edom.\r\n  And Jacob set a pillar on her grave,\r\nwhich is the pillar of Rachel's grave to  2\r\nthis day.                                  Esau took his wives from the daughters\r\n                                          of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon\r\n21                                        the Hittite; Aholibamah the daughter of\r\n  Then Israel journeyed and pitched his   Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;\r\ntent beyond the tower of Eder.\r\n                                          3\r\n22                                         and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter,\r\n  And it happened, when Israel dwelt in   sister of Nebajoth.\r\nthat land, that Reuben went and lay with\r\nBilhah his father's concubine; and Israel 4\r\nheard about it. Now the sons of Jacob      Now Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and\r\nwere twelve:                              Basemath bore Reuel.\r\n                                          5\r\n23\r\n  the sons of Leah were Reuben,            And Aholibamah bore Jeush, Jaalam,\r\nJacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi,      and Korah. These were the sons of\r\nJudah, Issachar, and Zebulun;             Esau who were born to him in the land\r\n                                          of Canaan.\r\n24\r\n  the sons of Rachel were Joseph and      6\r\nBenjamin;                                  Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his\r\n                                          daughters, and all the persons of his\r\n25                                        household, his cattle and all his animals,\r\n  the    sons    of   Bilhah,    Rachel's and all his goods which he had gained\r\nmaidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;       in the land of Canaan, and went to a\r\n26\r\n                                          country away from the presence of his\r\n  and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's          brother Jacob.\r\nmaidservant, were Gad and Asher.\r\n"

Bonus:

I've tried to download the PDF using:

download.file("http://www.apuritansmind.com/wp-content/uploads/PDF/NewKingJamesBible.pdf",
              "new_king_james_bible.pdf")

The file size is 6.5 MB, but when opening it, it is totally blank. why? I had to download it manually and read it from my PC to extract the text with pdftools.

Answer 1

Would the following approach work for you?

# split character string on line breaks
output.by.line <- strsplit(output, "\n")[[1]]

# consider everything up to the first 42 characters as column 1, everything after as column 2
output.by.line <- c(substring(output.by.line, 1, 42), # column 1
                    substring(output.by.line, 43))    # column 2

# remove leading / trailing whitespace
output.by.line <- trimws(output.by.line)

# remove blank lines
output.by.line <- output.by.line[nchar(output.by.line) > 0]

# preface each section number with \n to facilitate splitting
# (may require some manual check as not every section number appears to be in its own line)
output.by.line <- ifelse(nchar(output.by.line) <= 2 & 
                           !is.na(as.integer(output.by.line)),
                         paste0("\n", output.by.line),
                         output.by.line)

# join all lines together & split by section, dropping empty lines if any
output.by.section <- strsplit(paste(output.by.line, collapse = " "), "\n")[[1]]
output.by.section <- output.by.section[nchar(output.by.section) > 0]

# remove repeated white space inside each section, if any
output.by.section <- stringr::str_squish(output.by.section)

Result:

> output.by.section
 [1] "16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor."                                                                                                      
 [2] "17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, \"Do not fear; you will have this son also.\""                                                                                                                           
 [3] "18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin."                                                                                                                         
 [4] "19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)."                                                                                                                                                                              
 [5] "20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day."                                                                                                                                                                
 [6] "21 Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder."                                                                                                                                                                                   
 [7] "22 And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:"                                                                            
 [8] "23 the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;"                                                                                                                                                       
 [9] "24 the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin;"                                                                                                                                                                                                           
[10] "25 the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;"                                                                                                                                                                                       
[11] "26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram."                                                                                                                       
[12] "27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt."                                                                                                                                    
[13] "28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years."                                                                                                                                                                                               
[14] "29 So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. 36Now this is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom."                                                             
[15] "2 Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;"                                                                                            
[16] "3 and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth."                                                                                                                                                                                                   
[17] "4 Now Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel."                                                                                                                                                                                                 
[18] "5 And Aholibamah bore Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan."                                                                                                                                   
[19] "6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of his brother Jacob."

(Note: Yes, the line starting with 36 hasn't been identified as a new paragraph here, as it wasn't on its own line. I'm not sure what would be the most optimal way to deal with this. If it's just for a few pages, making some manual check + correction would probably be reasonable. Otherwise, it will depend on the numbering logic throughout the text, & probably worth a question on its own.)

On the file downloading part, you may wish to try the solution from this question (i.e. specify mode = "wb" as one of the arguments for download.file).