Find text with findTextAsync in TypeScript PDF Viewer

16 Feb 20263 minutes to read

The findTextAsync method performs an asynchronous text search within a PDF document. It returns a Promise that resolves with an array of result objects describing each match. Each match object contains information such as the page index and the bounding rectangles for the matched text, which can be used to highlight or navigate to occurrences. By default, the search runs across all pages; supply the optional pageIndex parameter to limit the search to a specific page.

Here is an example of how to use findTextAsync:

Example 1: Search for a single string (‘pdf’) case-insensitively across all pages

 <button id="findText">Find Text</button>
 <button id="findTexts">Find Texts</button>

import { PdfViewer, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, ThumbnailView, BookmarkView,
    TextSelection, TextSearch, Print, Annotation, FormFields, FormDesigner, PageOrganizer,
    ExtractTextOption} from '@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer';

PdfViewer.Inject(Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, ThumbnailView, BookmarkView,
    TextSelection, TextSearch, Print, Annotation, FormFields, FormDesigner, PageOrganizer);

let viewer:  PdfViewer = new PdfViewer();
viewer.documentPath= 'https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf';
viewer.resourceUrl= "https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/31.1.23/dist/ej2-pdfviewer-lib";
viewer.appendTo("#PdfViewer");


const findTextButton = document.getElementById('findText');
if (findTextButton) {
    findTextButton.addEventListener('click', function () {
      viewer.textSearchModule.findTextAsync('pdf', false).then(res => {
          console.log(res);  // Logs the search result for the term 'pdf'
      });
    });
}

Example 2: Search for multiple strings ([‘pdf’, ‘the’]) case-insensitively across all pages

const findTextButtons = document.getElementById('findTexts');
if(findTextButtons){
    findTextButtons.addEventListener('click', function () {
      viewer.textSearchModule.findTextAsync(['pdf', 'the'], false).then(res => {
          console.log(res);  // Logs the search result for the terms 'pdf' and 'the'
      });
    });
}

Description

The findTextAsync method is designed for performing an asynchronous text search within a PDF document. You can use it to search for a single string or multiple strings, with the ability to control case sensitivity. By default, the search is applied to all pages of the document. However, you can adjust this behavior by specifying the page number (pageIndex), which allows you to search only a specific page if needed.

Parameters

**text (string

string[]):** The text or array of texts to search for in the document.

matchCase (boolean): Whether the search is case-sensitive. true matches exact case; false ignores case.

pageIndex (optional, number): Zero-based page index to search. If omitted, searches all pages.

Example workflow

findTextAsync(‘pdf’, false):
This will search for the term “pdf” in a case-insensitive manner across all pages of the document.

findTextAsync([‘pdf’, ‘the’], false):
This will search for the terms “pdf” and “the” in a case-insensitive manner across all pages of the document.

findTextAsync(‘pdf’, false, 0):
This will search for the term “pdf” in a case-insensitive manner only on the first page (page 0).

findTextAsync([‘pdf’, ‘the’], false, 1):
This will search for the terms “pdf” and “the” in a case-insensitive manner only on the second page (page 1).

View sample in GitHub