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GroupDocs.Parser provides powerful text search functionality with support for keywords, regular expressions, case-sensitive search, and highlighting.
- GroupDocs.Parser for Python via .NET installed
- Sample documents for testing
- Basic understanding of regular expressions (for advanced searches)
To search for a specific keyword in a document:
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./sample.pdf") as parser:
# Search for a keyword
search_results = parser.search("harvest")
# Check if search is supported
if search_results is None:
print("Search isn't supported")
else:
# Iterate over search results
for result in search_results:
# Print position and found text
print(f"At {result.position}: {result.text}")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.pdf
At 399: Harvest
At 1710: Harvest
At 1736: Harvest
At 1937: harvest
At 3849: harvest
At 4149: Harvest
Expected behavior: The method returns a collection of SearchResult objects, each containing the position and text of every occurrence of the keyword.
To search using regular expressions:
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
from groupdocs.parser.options import SearchOptions
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./sample.pdf") as parser:
# Create search options for regex search
# Parameters: match_case, match_whole_word, use_regular_expression
options = SearchOptions(True, False, True)
# Search with a regular expression (case-sensitive)
search_results = parser.search(r"\d+\. [A-Z]\w+", options)
# Check if search is supported
if search_results is None:
print("Search isn't supported")
else:
# Iterate over search results
for result in search_results:
print(f"At {result.position}: {result.text}")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.pdf
At 171: 1. Overview
At 1210: 2. Operations
At 1696: 3. The
At 2522: 4. Financial
At 3752: 5. Sustainability
At 4105: 6. Outlook
Expected behavior: Finds all text matching the regular expression pattern with the specified options.
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
from groupdocs.parser.options import SearchOptions
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./sample.docx") as parser:
# Search for exact word match (case-insensitive, whole word)
# Parameters: match_case=False, match_whole_word=True, use_regular_expression=False
options = SearchOptions(False, True, False)
search_results = parser.search("harvest", options)
if search_results:
print(f"Found {len(list(search_results))} occurrences of 'harvest' as whole word")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.docx
Found 4 occurrences of 'harvest' as whole word
To search and extract surrounding text (highlights):
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
from groupdocs.parser.options import SearchOptions, HighlightOptions
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./sample.pdf") as parser:
# Create highlight options (extract 15 characters around the match)
highlight_options = HighlightOptions(15)
# Create search options with highlights
search_options = SearchOptions(
match_case=False,
match_whole_word=False,
use_regular_expression=False,
left_highlight_options=highlight_options,
right_highlight_options=highlight_options
)
# Search with highlights
search_results = parser.search("harvest", search_options)
if search_results is None:
print("Search isn't supported")
else:
# Iterate over search results and print with highlights
for result in search_results:
left_text = result.left_highlight_item.text if result.left_highlight_item is not None else ""
right_text = result.right_highlight_item.text if result.right_highlight_item is not None else ""
print(f"{left_text}[{result.text}]{right_text}")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.pdf
[Harvest] range and by c
3. The Autumn [Harvest] range
The Autumn [Harvest] range launched
and [harvest] lines now make
suring. Unsold [harvest] produce goes t
second Autumn [Harvest] season with tw
Expected behavior: Returns search results with context from surrounding text on both sides of the match.
To search and get page numbers where text appears:
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
from groupdocs.parser.options import SearchOptions
# Create an instance of Parser class
with Parser("./sample.pdf") as parser:
# Create search options with page search enabled
# Parameters: match_case, match_whole_word, use_regular_expression, search_by_pages
options = SearchOptions(False, False, False, True)
# Search with page numbers
search_results = parser.search("harvest", options)
if search_results is None:
print("Search isn't supported")
else:
# Iterate over search results
for result in search_results:
# Print position, page number, and found text
print(f"At {result.position} (page {result.page_index + 1}): {result.text}")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.pdf
At 399 (page 1): Harvest
At 551 (page 2): Harvest
At 577 (page 2): Harvest
At 778 (page 2): harvest
At 148 (page 4): harvest
At 448 (page 4): Harvest
Expected behavior: Each search result includes the page index where the text was found.
Combine multiple search techniques:
from groupdocs.parser import Parser
from groupdocs.parser.options import SearchOptions, HighlightOptions
def advanced_search(file_path, pattern, case_sensitive=False, use_regex=False):
"""
Perform advanced text search with highlights and page numbers.
"""
try:
with Parser(file_path) as parser:
# Configure highlight options
highlight_opts = HighlightOptions(20)
# Configure search options
search_opts = SearchOptions(
match_case=case_sensitive,
match_whole_word=False,
use_regular_expression=use_regex,
search_by_pages=True,
left_highlight_options=highlight_opts,
right_highlight_options=highlight_opts
)
# Perform search
results = parser.search(pattern, search_opts)
if results is None:
print("Search not supported for this document")
return []
# Process results
found_items = []
for result in results:
found_items.append({
'text': result.text,
'position': result.position,
'page': result.page_index + 1,
'left_context': result.left_highlight_item.text if result.left_highlight_item is not None else "",
'right_context': result.right_highlight_item.text if result.right_highlight_item is not None else ""
})
return found_items
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error during search: {e}")
return []
# Usage
results = advanced_search("sample.pdf", r"\d+\.\s+\w+", use_regex=True)
for item in results:
print(f"Page {item['page']}: {item['left_context']}[{item['text']}]{item['right_context']}")
The following sample file is used in this example: sample.pdf
Page 1: [1. Overview]
Page 2: [2. Operations]
Page 2: [3. The] Autumn Harvest rang
Page 3: [4. Financial] summary
Page 4: [5. Sustainability]
Page 4: [6. Outlook]
- The
search()method returnsNoneif search is not supported for the document format - Use
parser.features.searchto check if search is available before callingsearch() - Regular expressions are evaluated by .NET (
System.Text.RegularExpressions), whose syntax matches Python’srefor common patterns - Highlight extraction adds minimal performance overhead
- Page-based search (
search_by_pages=True) is useful for large documents
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