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Import pdf stored inside of sql into datagridview

sharris_glascol
sharris_glascol asked
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Trying to import a pdf file that is stored in a sql database.  I want to import this into a data grid view, but be able to filter the data grid view based on a text box inside of the page.
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pcelba

Commented:
How is the PDF stored in SQL database? In a varchar or varbinary column? As a file stream? What should the textbox filter out?  The PDF name, the text inside PDF, or something else? What SQL backend engine are you using? What frontend language are you planning for this task?

As you see the specification is very vague so first of all you have to answer/decide about the platforms used. Then create a short prototype w/o filtering and then you may think about the filtering. If you decide about the platform then search Internet which is full of code samples. Simply ask for e.g. "Download PDF to C# from SQL Server code sample" etc.
David Johnson, CD
Distinguished Expert 2019

Commented:

a pdf is great for viewing but not for using the data inside of it since a pdf is simply a replacment for a piece of paper. You need some way of selecting an area and then using optical character recognition to get the data from that area and put it into machine readable format 

One such solution is   https://docparser.com/features

Commented:
I assume your pdf is not scanned images but actual text (PS), then you will not need any OCR (optical character recognition),  but this will be a lot easier if you use adobe library, they should have it available for download or probably you already have it installed

basically you need to create the object (acropddoc or acropdpage, I really cant remember the name), pass it the pdf as parameter, cycle thru pagenumbers in the pdf, and aquire pages 1 by one, use the gettext method, and insert it in your datagrid, the hardest part here will be to get the library working properly, Ithe documentation exists I am Sure as I have used it before,
also you could use automation to open WORD as it can open PDF files, and then read the text from word, I whink that would be a lot easier.

Here is a link to a solution I gave long ago using WORD to read text from PDF tables and paste them in Excel, maybe you can start from there:
VBA  convert PDF to EXCEL Using Office , no external software