Extracting PDF text using Apache Tika

        public void convertPDF(String fileName){ 

        InputStream stream = null; 

        try{ 

        stream = new FileInputStream(fileName); 

        AutoDetectParser parser = new AutoDetectParser(); 

        BodyContentHandler handler = new BodyContentHandler(-1); 

        Metadata metadata = new Metadata(); 

        parser.parse(stream, handler, metadata, new ParseContext()); 

        System.out.println(handler.toString()); 

        }catch (Exception e) { 
                      e.printStackTrace(); 
                 }finally { 
                     if (stream != null) 
                          try { 
                               stream.close(); 
                          } catch (IOException e) { 
                            System.out.println("Error closing stream"); 
                          } 
                   } 
        } 

The full method with the driver method in a class will be as follows. The method you have just created can be called by sending it the path and the name of the PDF file you need to convert, which is in your C: drive saved as testPDF.pdf:

import java.io.FileInputStream; 
import java.io.IOException; 
import java.io.InputStream; 
import org.apache.tika.metadata.Metadata; 
import org.apache.tika.parser.AutoDetectParser; 
import org.apache.tika.parser.ParseContext; 
import org.apache.tika.sax.BodyContentHandler; 
 
public class TestTika { 
     public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception { 
          TestTika tika = new TestTika(); 
          tika.convertPdf("C:/testPDF.pdf"); 
     } 
     public void convertPdf(String fileName){ 
          InputStream stream = null; 
          try { 
              stream = new FileInputStream(fileName); 
              AutoDetectParser parser = new AutoDetectParser(); 
              BodyContentHandler handler = new BodyContentHandler(-1); 
              Metadata metadata = new Metadata(); 
              parser.parse(stream, handler, metadata, new 
                  ParseContext()); 
              System.out.println(handler.toString()); 
          }catch (Exception e) { 
              e.printStackTrace(); 
          }finally { 
              if (stream != null) 
                   try { 
                        stream.close(); 
                   } catch (IOException e) { 
                        System.out.println("Error closing stream"); 
                   } 
          } 
     } 
}