Text Search
RadPdfViewer provides comprehensive text search functionality that supports both UI and programmatic search operations. Users can search for specific text within PDF documents using plain text strings or a regex for the search criteria.
Search through the UI
In order to be able to select text from the UI, you can use PdfViewerNavigator.
RadPdfViewerNavigator provides a built-in search functionality that allows users to search for text within PDF documents through an intuitive user interface. The navigator includes a search textbox and navigation buttons to find next/previous occurances and navigate through search results.
Programmatic Search
RadPdfViewer exposes a set of Find methods for programmatic text search. These methods allow you to search for text throughout the document or within specific ranges.
Find Overloads
The Find method searches forward through the document:
Find(string text) - Finds the specified text in the current document using default search options.
Find(string text, TextSearchOptions options) - Finds the specified text using specified search options that control case sensitivity, whole word matching, and other parameters.
Find(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextPosition startPosition) - Finds the specified text starting from a specific position. The search begins from the provided start position and moves forward through the document.
Find(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextRange range) - Finds the specified text within a specific range. The search is limited to the text content within the provided range boundaries.
FindPrevious Overloads
The FindPrevious methods search backward through the document:
FindPrevious(string text) - Finds the previous occurrence of the specified text using default search options. The search begins from the current selection or position and moves backward.
FindPrevious(string text, TextSearchOptions options) - Finds the previous occurrence using specified search options. The search moves backward through the document.
FindPrevious(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextPosition startPosition) - Finds the previous occurrence starting from a specific position. The search begins from the provided start position and moves backward.
FindPrevious(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextRange range) - Finds the previous occurrence within a specific range. The search moves backward through the text content within the provided range boundaries.
FindAll Overloads
The FindAll methods return all occurrences of the search text:
FindAll(string text) - Finds all occurrences of the specified text in the document using default search options.
FindAll(string text, TextSearchOptions options) - Finds all occurrences using specified search options. Returns all matching results found throughout the entire document.
FindAll(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextPosition startPosition) - Finds all occurrences starting from a specific position. Returns all matching results from the start position to the end of the document.
FindAll(string text, TextSearchOptions options, TextRange range) - Finds all occurrences within a specific range. Returns all matching results found within the boundaries of the provided text range.
SearchResult class
All Find methods return a SearchResult object (or a collection of SearchResult objects for FindAll()). This class exposes the following public members that provide information about the results:
- TextRange: An object describing the start and end positions of the match. This object exposed the following properties.
- StartPosition: An object that contains the start index and location of the current match.
- EndPosition: An object that contains the end index and location of the current match.
- Result: A string value representing the match.
- GetWordBoundingRect(): Gets the rectangle of the current match.
- GetResultPage(): Gets the page where the current result is.
- SearchResult.NotFound is returned when no match is found.
Example: Searching in a document
SearchResult result = this.radPdfViewer1.Find("RadPdfViewer", TextSearchOptions.Default);
if (result == SearchResult.NotFound)
{
RadMessageBox.Show("String not found");
}
else
{
this.radPdfViewer1.Select(result);
}
Dim result As SearchResult = Me.radPdfViewer1.Find("RadPdfViewer", TextSearchOptions.Default)
If result = SearchResult.NotFound Then
RadMessageBox.Show("String not found")
Else
Me.radPdfViewer1.Select(result)
End If
TextSearchOptions
The TextSearchOptions class provides several properties to control the search behavior:
- CaseSensitive - Determines whether the search is case-sensitive
- UseRegularExpression - Enables regular expression pattern matching
- WholeWordsOnly - Matches only complete words