PHP Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Search a PDF with a Regular Expression

See more PDF Text Extraction Examples

Demonstrates searching a PDF with a regular expression (regex: true), limiting the number of results (maxResults), and matching whole words only (wholeWord). Chilkat2 PHP

<?php

use Chilkat2\JsonObject;
use Chilkat2\Pdf;

// This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
// See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

// The PDF used in this example is available at order_records.pdf

$pdf = new Pdf();
try {
    $pdf->LoadFile('qa_data/pdf/order_records.pdf');

    $json = new JsonObject();
    $jsonOut = new JsonObject();

    // Find every order number.  With regex set to true, the query is a regular expression.
    $json->UpdateString('query', 'ORD-[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{4}');
    $json->UpdateBool('regex', true);
    // We only want the matched text, so no context is needed.
    $json->UpdateInt('context', 0);

    $pdf->ExtractText('search', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo 'Order numbers found: ', $jsonOut->IntOf('count'), "\n";
$i = 0;
$count_i = $jsonOut->SizeOfArray('matches');
while ($i < $count_i) {
    $jsonOut->I = $i;
    echo $jsonOut->StringOf('matches[i].text'), "\n";
    $i = $i + 1;
}

// Find the e-mail addresses, but stop after the first three.
$json->UpdateString('query', '[a-z0-9._]+@[a-z]+[.][a-z]+');
$json->UpdateInt('maxResults', 3);
try {
    $pdf->ExtractText('search', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo "First three e-mail addresses:\n";
$i = 0;
$count_i = $jsonOut->SizeOfArray('matches');
while ($i < $count_i) {
    $jsonOut->I = $i;
    echo $jsonOut->StringOf('matches[i].text'), "\n";
    $i = $i + 1;
}

// wholeWord: true matches only whole words.  The word "cat" appears once in the PDF,
// but it is also inside "catalog" and "category".
$json->Delete('maxResults');
$json->UpdateBool('regex', false);
$json->UpdateString('query', 'cat');
try {
    $pdf->ExtractText('search', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo 'Occurrences of cat (any): ', $jsonOut->IntOf('count'), "\n";

$json->UpdateBool('wholeWord', true);
try {
    $pdf->ExtractText('search', $json, $jsonOut);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo 'Occurrences of cat (whole word): ', $jsonOut->IntOf('count'), "\n";

// Sample output:

// Order numbers found: 9
// ORD-2026-0301
// ORD-2026-0302
// ORD-2026-0303
// ORD-2026-0304
// ORD-2026-0305
// ORD-2026-0306
// ORD-2026-0307
// ORD-2026-0308
// ORD-2026-0307
// First three e-mail addresses:
// alice.moore@example.com
// bkumar@example.org
// carla@example.net
// Occurrences of cat (any): 3
// Occurrences of cat (whole word): 1