How can I get the path of a file from an OpenFileDialog and pass it to a PDFReader? (C#)

Question

OpenFileDialog ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    ofd.Filter = "PDF|*.pdf";
    if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    { 
           richTextBox1.Text = ofd.SafeFileName;
    }

}
public static string pdfText(string path)
{
     //this is the error, I cannot get the path of the File I chose from the OpenFileDialog
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(ofd.FileName); 
    string text = string.Empty;

    for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
    {
        text = text += PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page);

    }
    reader.Close();
    return text;
}

I need to get the path of the file chosen by the user from the OpenFileDialog but I cant pass it to the PDFReader

What is the error message? ofd.FileName should give you the full path to the selected file.. — richej, Aug 23 '18 at 12:04
might it be that you forgot to call the method? something like: `richTextBox1.Text = pdfText(ofd.SafeFileName);` and inside the method `PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(path);` ? — Mong Zhu, Aug 23 '18 at 12:16

Mong Zhu · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-23T12:26:11.297

1) you cannot use a class variable in a static method so accessing ofd in this line:

PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(ofd.FileName);

should result in an compiler error message that

for the non-static field 'ofd' an object instance is required.

2) It seems that you are not calling your method. You need to call it and pass the filename as parameter into it

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    ofd.Filter = "PDF|*.pdf";
    if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    { 
           richTextBox1..Text = pdfText(ofd.SafeFileName);
    }    
}

Then you need to use the method parameter inside the method:

public static string pdfText(string path)
{
     //this is the error, I cannot get the path of the File I chose from the OpenFileDialog
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(path); // Here use path

Now the returned string should appear in your richTextBox1

@LouePotente you're welcome. and welcome to Stack Overflow. please don't forget to visit the [Herlp center](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask). Good fortune here :) — Mong Zhu, Aug 23 '18 at 13:41

How can I get the path of a file from an OpenFileDialog and pass it to a PDFReader? (C#)

1 Answers1