PowerShell Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

Search for Text in a PDF

See more PDF Text Extraction Examples

Demonstrates the "search" operation, which finds every occurrence of a string in a PDF and returns each match with its page number and the text around it. Matching ignores case unless caseSensitive is true. PowerShell

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

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

#  The three-page PDF used in this example is available at search_context.pdf

$pdf = New-Object Chilkat.Pdf
$success = $pdf.LoadFile("qa_data/pdf/search_context.pdf")
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($pdf.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$json = New-Object Chilkat.JsonObject
$jsonOut = New-Object Chilkat.JsonObject

#  The string to find.
$json.UpdateString("query","chilkat")

#  The number of characters returned before and after each match.  The default is 40.
$json.UpdateInt("context",30)

$success = $pdf.ExtractText("search",$json,$jsonOut)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($pdf.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  "count" is the number of matches.  Each match has the page, the matched text as it appears
#  in the PDF, and the text before and after it.
$("Matches: " + $jsonOut.IntOf("count"))

$i = 0
$count_i = $jsonOut.SizeOfArray("matches")
while ($i -lt $count_i) {
    $jsonOut.I = $i
    $("page " + $jsonOut.IntOf("matches[i].page") + ": ..." + $jsonOut.StringOf("matches[i].before") + "[" + $jsonOut.StringOf("matches[i].text") + "]" + $jsonOut.StringOf("matches[i].after")
         + "...")
    $i = $i + 1
}

#  The search ignores case by default.  Set caseSensitive to find only the exact spelling.
$json.UpdateBool("caseSensitive",$true)
$json.UpdateString("query","Chilkat")
$success = $pdf.ExtractText("search",$json,$jsonOut)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($pdf.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$("Case-sensitive matches for Chilkat: " + $jsonOut.IntOf("count"))

#  Sample output:

#  Matches: 5
#  page 1: ...[Chilkat] River Field Notes The Chilkat...
#  page 1: ...Chilkat River Field Notes The [Chilkat] River runs for about fifty mi...
#  page 2: ...DAY ONE: UPPER [CHILKAT] FLATS Clear and cold, minus e...
#  page 2: ...he river is sometimes spelled [chilkat] in older records, and the val...
#  page 3: ...y because the fish run on the [Chilkat] was thinning. Two tagged bird...
#  Case-sensitive matches for Chilkat: 3