Reading file contents using C#

Question

I want to read the contents of following file types using C#:

RTF
PDF
HTML
MS Word

Is there any common API in .Net for reading all file type contents?

opening the file and reading its contents

Steve Chapman
– Steve Chapman

2009-04-22 01:45:44 +00:00
Commented Apr 22, 2009 at 1:45 — Steve Chapman
– Steve Chapman, Commented Apr 22, 2009 at 1:45

Bob · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-22 01:45:23Z

2

There is no built in support for reading most of those file types. HTML is plain text so you can use the System.IO/StreamReader to read it, but you must parse it yourself.

There are third party components which will read these file types, but I am not sure if there is one all encompassing component.

For PDFs, I believe iTextSharp allows you to read.

For RTF/Word, You can use the Primary Interop Assemblies

answered Apr 22, 2009 at 1:45

Bob

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Nick Josevski · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-22 02:25:34Z

1

I've used Aspose before it's a very powerful product it's reasonably pricey so would only recommend it if your application also needs to create new word/pdf/rtf documents.

I agree with the other comments about just using System.IO for reading HTML files.

answered Apr 22, 2009 at 2:25

Nick Josevski

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D'Arcy Rittich · Accepted Answer · 2009-04-22 02:02:26Z

0

If you are going to full-text index the data, look into using Lucene, it can handle those file types.

answered Apr 22, 2009 at 2:02

D'Arcy Rittich

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