Access and Find PDF Form Fields

• Jul 13, 2026
• 2 minutes to read

Use the PdfDocument.getFields() method to access a PDF document’s form field collection. You can iterate through all fields, find a field by name, find fields that match a condition, or locate a field’s parent group.

Access All Form Fields

Call the PdfDocument.getFields() method to get the document’s form field collection and iterate through its fields.

The following code snippet iterates through all form fields and prints their names and types:

// Iterate through all form fields in the document, including grouped fields.
for (FormField field : pdfDocument.getFields().toFlatIterable()) {
    System.out.println(field.getName());
    System.out.println(field.getClass().getSimpleName());
}

Refer to the following help topics for additional information on processing fields that belong to groups:

• Iterate Through Fields in a Group
• Flatten the Form Field Collection

Find a Form Field by Name

Call the findByName() method to get a form field with the specified name.

The following code snippet searches for the FirstName field:

// Find a form field by name.
FormField field = pdfDocument.getFields().findByName("FirstName");

if (field != null) {
    System.out.println(field.getName());
}

Find the First Matching Form Field

Call the find(Predicate<FormField>) method to find the first form field that satisfies the specified condition.

The following code snippet finds the first field whose name starts with First:

// Find the first matching form field.
FormField field = pdfDocument.getFields().find(
        f -> f.getName().startsWith("First"));

if (field != null) {
    System.out.println(field.getName());
}

Find Multiple Form Fields

Call the findAll(Predicate<FormField>) method to get all fields that satisfy the specified condition.

The following code snippet finds all fields whose names contain Name:

// Find all matching form fields.
Iterable<FormField> fields =
        pdfDocument.getFields().findAll(
                f -> f.getName().contains("Name"));

for (FormField field : fields) {
    System.out.println(field.getName());
}

Find a Field’s Parent Group

If a field belongs to a group, call the findParent(FormField) method to obtain its parent GroupField.

The following code snippet obtains the parent group of a form field:

// Find a form field.
FormField field = pdfDocument.getFields().findByName("FirstName");

// Get the parent group.
GroupField group = pdfDocument.getFields().findParent(field);

if (group != null) {
    System.out.println(group.getName());
}