Is there software to allow me to search a PDF file with Regex? [closed]

Solution 1:

Yes there is. Agent Ransack This software can search through directories of files of most formats and takes REGEX too.

Solution 2:

The closest I have ever found for this is a package called the PDF Search Assistant. The website looks dodgy I admit but the software actually works very well and does allow regex across multiple files.

It's not free or cheap however and I haven't needed to do this in some time so I am not aware of anything newer.

Solution 3:

Windows

With regex search:

• PDF Search
• PDF Manager
• dnGREP (via plug-in)
• FileLocator Pro or Agent Ransack
• PowerGrep

Without regex search:

• Adobe PDF iFilter
• PDFSearcher
• PDF Explorer
• Sumatra PDF (sources)
• File Search Assistant (FSA)
• Foxit Reader + IFilter (or other FoxIt softwares)

Other:

• grepWin, it supports regex, but doesn't support PDF files yet.

Linux

Without regex search:

• pdfgrep (no GUI, available via apt-get)

  Example regex usage: (e )?Universit[yä])^@Claudius

Related question: Is there any pdf reader that supports word searching with regular expression?

Solution 4:

pdfgrep still exists and is packaged for Debian. However, it doesn’t have a graphical user interface.

Solution 5:

dngrep - GREP for Windows is said to be able to search PDF documents via plug-in.