Manipulate Tables in Existing PDF Documents

Use TableAbsorber when you need to locate existing tables and update their content.

Replace text inside a table cell

Use this example when the text in a detected cell should be updated without rebuilding the whole table.

1. Open the source PDF Document and visit the page with TableAbsorber.
2. Validate that the target table and cell text fragments exist.
3. Replace the cell text and save the updated document.

public static void replaceCells(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        TableAbsorber absorber = new TableAbsorber();
        absorber.visit(document.getPages().get_Item(1));

        if (absorber.getTableList().isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("No tables were found on page 1.");
        }
        if (absorber.getTableList().get(0).getRowList().get(0).getCellList().get(0).getTextFragments().size() == 0) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("The target cell has no text fragments.");
        }

        absorber.getTableList().get(0).getRowList().get(0).getCellList().get(0)
                .getTextFragments().get_Item(1).setText("New Value");
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Replace a detected table with a new table

Use this example when the original table should be fully replaced by a newly constructed one.

1. Open the source PDF Document and detect tables on the page.
2. Create a new Table with the desired structure.
3. Replace the absorbed table and save the output PDF.

public static void replaceTable(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        TableAbsorber absorber = new TableAbsorber();
        absorber.visit(document.getPages().get_Item(1));

        if (absorber.getTableList().isEmpty()) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("No tables were found on page 1.");
        }

        AbsorbedTable oldTable = absorber.getTableList().get(0);
        Table newTable = new Table();
        newTable.setColumnWidths("100 100 100");
        newTable.setDefaultCellBorder(new BorderInfo(BorderSide.All, 1.0f));

        Row row = newTable.getRows().add();
        row.getCells().add("Col 1");
        row.getCells().add("Col 2");
        row.getCells().add("Col 3");
        row = newTable.getRows().add();
        row.getCells().add("Col 12");
        row.getCells().add("Col 22");
        row.getCells().add("Col 32");

        absorber.replace(document.getPages().get_Item(1), oldTable, newTable);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}