Pdf file handling

Question

Hi,
I am trying to read pdf file in String, process the string and then put the string back in a new pdf file. The code I am using is as follows:
Reading pdf file:
String readFile() throws Exception
     InputStream istr = getClass().getResourceAsStream("26-1880.pdf");
     StringBuffer buff = new StringBuffer();
int someByte=0;
     for(int i=0 ; ; i++)
          try
               someByte = istr.read();
          catch(IOException ioe)
               ioe.printStackTrace();
          if(someByte == -1)
          break;
          buff.append((char)someByte);
return (buff.toString());
Writing string to pdf:
void writeFile(String file) throws Exception
     OutputStream ostr = new FileOutputStream(new File("VALoan.pdf"));
     byte[] someByte=file.getBytes();
     ostr.write(someByte);
     ostr.flush();
     ostr.close();
But the new file that I generate does not become valid pdf file.
Also right now, I am not even processing the string that I get from a pdf file. I just get and put it back.
Can anyone find out what could be the problem?
Thanks,
-Stan

Answer 1

Hi Vanilla,
I want to process the string that I get from the pdf.What do you mean "process"? What are you planning to do with it?
And it is NOT a String. If you want a String representation (e.g., just the text, with no layout, font, etc. info), then you'd need to interpret the BYTES first and then build a String from the results.
I can not process the bytes. So I think, I have to
convert the bytes into string.Then you need to either learn the PDF spec and write code to interpret those bytes, or you need to find a 3rd party library that does this. You can't just expect to read the bytes into a Java String and have it work.