extractFileText — Read text from plain text, HTML, and DOCX files.
extractFileText(filename) reads text from a host file and returns a string scalar. This slice supports plain text files with encodings, HTML files through RunMat's extractHTMLText parser, and DOCX files by extracting word/document.xml text.
Syntax
str = extractFileText(filename)
str = extractFileText(filename,Name,Value)Inputs
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
filename | Any | Yes | — | Path to a text, HTML, or DOCX file. |
NameValue | Any | Variadic | — | Name-value options: Encoding, ExtractionMethod, Password, and Pages. |
Returns
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
str | StringScalar | Extracted text. |
Errors
| Identifier | When | Message |
|---|---|---|
RunMat:extractFileText:InvalidInput | Inputs do not match a supported extractFileText form. | extractFileText: invalid input |
RunMat:extractFileText:IOError | The requested file cannot be read. | extractFileText: file read failed |
RunMat:extractFileText:UnsupportedFormat | The requested file type or option requires unsupported extraction infrastructure. | extractFileText: unsupported file type or option |
How extractFileText works
- Documented
filename/URL input is a string scalar, character vector, or 1-by-1 cell containing a character vector. A string-valued or nested filename cell is a RunMat extension. - Plain text files are decoded as UTF-8 by default. The
Encodingname-value option accepts labels supported byencoding_rs, such asUTF-8,windows-1252, andISO-8859-1. - HTML files with extensions
.html,.htm, and.xhtmlare decoded as text and passed toextractHTMLText. - For HTML files,
ExtractionMethodaccepts"tree","article", or"all-text"and follows the existingextractHTMLTextcompatibility behavior. - DOCX files are read as zip archives and text is extracted from
word/document.xml, preserving paragraph breaks and basic tabs/line breaks. - The documented
Pagesoption is a nonempty vector of positive values in single, double, or any of the eight integer classes. RunMat parses these controls exactly from native storage, but PDF extraction itself remains unsupported. - PDF extraction, website/URL fetching, password-protected documents, legacy binary DOC, and full Microsoft Word layout fidelity remain tracked by the broader Text Analytics compatibility issue.
- Integer, logical, complex, and resident numeric filename values reject before file IO or provider access. Resident Pages controls require RunMat extension mode.
- Unknown file extensions are treated as plain text files.
GPU memory and residency
extractFileText performs host file IO and text parsing and has no provider kernel.
Examples
Read Plain Text
str = extractFileText("notes.txt")Expected output:
`str` is the file contents as a string scalar.Read HTML Text
str = extractFileText("page.html", "ExtractionMethod", "all-text")Expected output:
`str` contains visible text extracted from the HTML file.Read DOCX Text
str = extractFileText("report.docx")Expected output:
`str` contains the text runs from the DOCX main document part.Using extractFileText with coding agents
Open a RunMat example with live inputs, then ask the agent to explain how extractFileText changes the result.
Run a small extractFileText example, explain the result, then change one input and compare the output.
FAQ
Does extractFileText support PDF files?⌄
Not yet. RunMat rejects PDF-specific forms with a clear error and keeps PDF extraction in the broader Text Analytics queue.
Does extractFileText read websites?⌄
Not in this slice. URL extraction requires web fetching behavior and remains tracked.
Does extractFileText execute on the GPU?⌄
No. It performs host file IO and text parsing.
Related Strings functions
Text Analytics
addDependencyDetails · addEntityDetails · addLemmaDetails · addPartOfSpeechDetails · addSentenceDetails · addTypeDetails · bagOfNgrams · bagOfWords · cosineSimilarity · doc2sequence · encode · extractHTMLText · fastTextWordEmbedding · findElement · getAttribute · htmlTree · ind2word · isVocabularyWord · normalizeWords · readWordEmbedding · removeLongWords · removeShortWords · removeStopWords · removeWords · stopWords · tokenDetails · tokenizedDocument · trainWordEmbedding · vaderSentimentScores · vec2word · word2ind · word2vec · wordEncoding · writeWordEmbedding
Transform
append · deblank · erase · eraseBetween · erasePunctuation · eraseURLs · extractAfter · extractBefore · extractBetween · insertAfter · insertBefore · join · lower · pad · replace · replaceBetween · reverse · split · splitlines · strcat · strip · strjoin · strjust · strrep · strsplit · strtrim · upper
Core
blanks · char · compose · convertCharsToStrings · convertContainedStringsToChars · convertStringsToChars · genvarname · int2str · isletter · isspace · isStringScalar · isstrprop · mat2str · native2unicode · newline · num2str · sprintf · sscanf · str2double · str2num · strcmp · strcmpi · string · string.empty · strings · strlength · strncmp · strncmpi · strtok · unicode2native
Search
contains · endsWith · matches · startsWith · strfind
Pattern
digitsPattern · lettersPattern · pattern · regexpPattern · textBoundary · wildcardPattern
Open-source implementation
Unlike proprietary runtimes, every RunMat function is open-source. Read exactly how extractFileText is executed, line by line, in Rust.
- View the source for extractFileText in Rust on GitHub
- Learn how the RunMat runtime works
- Found a bug? Open an issue with a minimal reproduction.
About RunMat
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