SelectionOutputTarget (PDFxStream API Reference)

java.lang.Object
- com.snowtide.pdf.OutputHandler
- - com.snowtide.pdf.OutputTarget
  - - com.snowtide.pdf.SelectionOutputTarget

```
public class SelectionOutputTarget
extends OutputTarget
```
An OutputTarget derivative that restricts the content added to the given StringBuffer to that within the starting and ending selection points specified in the constructor. This implementation would most commonly be paired with an interactive UI, where a user would be able to specify a range of content to be selected.

Example:
```
 float x1 = 0, y1 = 450, x2 = 390, y2 = 72;
 
 Document pdf = PDF.open(pdfFile);
 StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
 SelectionOutputTarget tgt = new SelectionOutputTarget(sb, x1, y1, x2, y2);
 
 pdf.getPage(0).pipe(tgt);
 p.pipe(tgt);
 pdf.close();
 
 String selectedText = sb.toString();
 
```
Note that this OutputHandler retains OutputTarget's read-ordering and segmentation semantics, so the selection's start and end points are interpreted within that context; they are not the corners of a bounding or crop box as with RegionOutputTarget. That is, a start point that is within the first column of a page and an end point in the second column will result in all of the intervening text being extracted.
Version:

©2004-2025 Snowtide

Field Summary
- Fields inherited from class com.snowtide.pdf.OutputTarget
  sink

Constructor Summary

Constructors
Constructor	Description
`SelectionOutputTarget(StringBuffer sb, float x1, float y1, float x2, float y2)`

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Concrete Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`void`	`endPage(Page p)`	Invoked when PDFxStream has finished processing a page
`void`	`startPage(Page p)`	Invoked when a page is about to be processed.
`void`	`textUnit(TextUnit ch)`	Default implementation that writes the character run specified by the given `TextUnit` instance to the `Appendable` held by this `OutputTarget`.

Methods inherited from class com.snowtide.pdf.OutputTarget
forBuffer, forWriter, getConfig, getObject, linebreaks, setConfig, spaces, startSpan, write, write, write, write

Methods inherited from class com.snowtide.pdf.OutputHandler
endBlock, endLine, endPDF, endSpan, startBlock, startLine, startPDF

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

- Constructor Detail
  - SelectionOutputTarget
```
public SelectionOutputTarget(StringBuffer sb,
                             float x1,
                             float y1,
                             float x2,
                             float y2)
```
- Method Detail
  - startPage
```
public void startPage(Page p)
```
    Description copied from class: OutputHandler
    
    Invoked when a page is about to be processed.
    
    Overrides:
    
    startPage in class OutputTarget
    
    Parameters:
    
    p - a reference to the Page that is about to be processed
  - endPage
```
public void endPage(Page p)
```
    Description copied from class: OutputHandler
    
    Invoked when PDFxStream has finished processing a page
    
    Overrides:
    
    endPage in class OutputHandler
    
    Parameters:
    
    p - a reference to the Page that has been processed
  - textUnit
```
public void textUnit(TextUnit ch)
```
    Description copied from class: OutputTarget
    
    Default implementation that writes the character run specified by the given TextUnit instance to the Appendable held by this OutputTarget.
    
    Overrides:
    
    textUnit in class OutputTarget
    
    See Also:
    
    TextUnit.getCharacterSequence()