Java: need to create PDF from byte array

Question

From a DB2 table I've got blob which I'm converting to a byte array so I can work with it. I need to take the byte array and create a PDF out of it.

This is what I have:

static void byteArrayToFile(byte[] bArray) {  
    try {  
        // Create file  
        FileWriter fstream = new FileWriter("out.pdf");  
        BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(fstream);  
        for (Byte b: bArray) {  
            out.write(b);  
        }  
        out.close();  
    } catch (Exception e) {  
        System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());  
    }  
}

But the PDF it creates is not right, it has a bunch of black lines running from top to bottom on it.

I was actually able to create the correct PDF by writing a web application using essentially the same process. The primary difference between the web application and the code about was this line:

response.setContentType("application/pdf");

So I know the byte array is a PDF and it can be done, but my code in byteArrayToFile won't create a clean PDF.

Any ideas on how I can make it work?

Jason Orendorff · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-22 05:43:53Z

63

Sending your output through a FileWriter is corrupting it because the data is bytes, and FileWriters are for writing characters. All you need is:

OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("out.pdf");
out.write(bArray);
out.close();

answered Nov 22, 2009 at 5:43

Jason Orendorff

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4 Comments

AnandKumar Selvamani Over a year ago

Hi Jason can you please share me the code or share me some link am also facing the issue. Thanks

ashubuntu Over a year ago

@Anand bArray is the byte array. If u have got the array, then the code provided with the answer is the usable code to convert a byte array to PDF file.

asifaftab87 Over a year ago

Hi Jason, I m using same and getting byte array from web service. But even unable to open pdf it is showing "unable to open this file either not a supported file type or file has been damaged". Please help me on this.

dhS Over a year ago

Hi Jason, i have the similar question, unable to open the pdf ... please help stackoverflow.com/questions/77823549/…

dapc · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-23 12:20:50Z

7

One can utilize the autoclosable interface that was introduced in java 7.

try (OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("out.pdf")) {
   out.write(bArray);
}

edited Sep 23, 2020 at 12:20

answered Mar 20, 2018 at 10:03

dapc

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1 Comment

Olexii Over a year ago

Doesn't really matters here, but try-with-recourses for autoclosable was introduced in java 7. docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/AutoCloseable.html

MartenCatcher · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-14 13:27:35Z

1

Read from file or string to bytearray.

byte[] filedata = null;
String content = new String(bytearray);
content = content.replace("\r", "").replace("\uf8ff", "").replace("'", "").replace("\"", "").replace("`", "");
String[] arrOfStr = content.split("\n");
PDDocument document = new PDDocument();
PDPage page = new PDPage();
document.addPage(page);
try (PDPageContentStream cs = new PDPageContentStream(document, page)) {
    // setting font family and font size
    cs.beginText(); 
    cs.setFont(PDType1Font.HELVETICA, 14);
    cs.setNonStrokingColor(Color.BLACK);
    cs.newLineAtOffset(20, 750);
    for (String str: arrOfStr) {
        cs.newLineAtOffset(0, -15);
        cs.showText(str);
    }
    cs.newLine();
    cs.endText();
}
document.save(znaFile);
document.close();

edited Feb 14, 2020 at 13:27

MartenCatcher

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answered Nov 25, 2019 at 17:14

Singh Ss

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2 Comments

RalfFriedl Over a year ago

The answer would benefit from better formatting and an explanation.

Singh Ss Over a year ago

Formatting is not allowing over this site, and formatting eclipse could do by itself I guess so. Anyway this code is tested and running for changing the bytearray to pdf file. One more suggestion, if file needs to be shared over the network, better to use bytearray and use FileUtils library.

Sayed Sohan · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-12 10:59:36Z

0

 public static String getPDF() throws IOException {

        File file = new File("give complete path of file which must be read");
        FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(file);
        byte[] buffer = new byte[8192];
        ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        int bytesRead;enter code here
        while ((bytesRead = stream.read(buffer)) != -1) {
            baos.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
        System.out.println("it came back"+baos);
        byte[] buffer1= baos.toByteArray();
        String fileName = "give your filename with location";

        //stream.close();
        
        
         FileOutputStream outputStream =
                    new FileOutputStream(fileName);
         
         outputStream.write(buffer1);
        
         return fileName;
        
    }

edited Aug 12, 2020 at 10:59

Sayed Sohan

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answered Aug 12, 2020 at 10:34

bysani akshitha

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1 Comment

dhS Over a year ago

hello i have the similar issue stackoverflow.com/questions/77823549/…

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