Can we open pdf file using UIWebView on iOS?

Can we open the pdf file from UIWebView?

Yes, this can be done with the UIWebView.

If you are trying to display a PDF file residing on a server somewhere, you can simply load it in your web view directly:

Objective-C

UIWebView *webView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 10, 200, 200)];

NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"https://www.example.com/document.pdf"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
[webView loadRequest:request];

[self.view addSubview:webView];

Swift

let webView = UIWebView(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 10, width: 200, height: 200))

let targetURL = NSURL(string: "https://www.example.com/document.pdf")! // This value is force-unwrapped for the sake of a compact example, do not do this in your code
let request = NSURLRequest(URL: targetURL)
webView.loadRequest(request)

view.addSubview(webView)

Or if you have a PDF file bundled with your application (in this example named "document.pdf"):

Objective-C

UIWebView *webView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 10, 200, 200)];

NSURL *targetURL = [[NSBundle mainBundle] URLForResource:@"document" withExtension:@"pdf"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
[webView loadRequest:request];

[self.view addSubview:webView];

Swift

let webView = UIWebView(frame: CGRect(x: 10, y: 10, width: 200, height: 200))

let targetURL = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("document", withExtension: "pdf")! // This value is force-unwrapped for the sake of a compact example, do not do this in your code
let request = NSURLRequest(URL: targetURL)
webView.loadRequest(request)

view.addSubview(webView)

You can find more information here: [Technical QA1630: Using UIWebView to display select document types][1].

[1]: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/qa/qa2008/qa1630.html "Technical Q&A QA1630: Using UIWebView to display select document types"

UIWebviews can also load the .pdf using loadData method, if you acquire it as NSData:

[self.webView loadData:self.pdfData 
              MIMEType:@"application/pdf" 
      textEncodingName:@"UTF-8" 
               baseURL:nil];

use this for open pdf file in webview

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"mypdf" ofType:@"pdf"];
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
UIWebView *webView=[[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 300, 300)];
[[webView scrollView] setContentOffset:CGPointMake(0,500) animated:YES];
[webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"window.scrollTo(0.0, 50.0)"]];
[webView loadRequest:request];
[self.view addSubview:webView];
[webView release];

NSString *folderName=[NSString stringWithFormat:@"/documents/%@",[tempDictLitrature objectForKey:@"folder"]];
NSString *fileName=[tempDictLitrature objectForKey:@"name"];
[self.navigationItem setTitle:fileName];
NSString *type=[tempDictLitrature objectForKey:@"type"];
        
NSString *path=[[NSBundle mainBundle]pathForResource:fileName ofType:type inDirectory:folderName];
               
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
webView=[[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 1024, 730)];
[webView setBackgroundColor:[UIColor lightGrayColor]];
webView.scalesPageToFit = YES;

[[webView scrollView] setContentOffset:CGPointZero animated:YES];
[webView stringByEvaluatingJavaScriptFromString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"window.scrollTo(0.0, 50.0)"]];
[webView loadRequest:request];
[self.view addSubview:webView];

An update to Martin Alléus's answer, to get the full screen whether it is a phone or a iPad without having to hard code:

CGRect rect = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds];
CGSize screenSize = rect.size;
UIWebView *webView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0,screenSize.width,screenSize.height)];
    
NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"pdf" ofType:@"pdf"];
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
[webView loadRequest:request];
    
[self.view addSubview:webView];

Swift version:

if let docPath = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource("sample", ofType: "pdf") {
    let docURL = NSURL(fileURLWithPath: docPath)
    webView.loadRequest(NSURLRequest(URL: docURL))
}

Swift 4

     let webView = UIWebView(frame: view.bounds)
    let targetURL = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "sampleFileName", withExtension: "pdf")
    let request = URLRequest(url: targetURL!)
    webView.loadRequest(request)
    view.addSubview(webView)
    

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"document" ofType:@"pdf"];
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
[webView loadRequest:request];

UIWebView *pdfWebView = [[UIWebView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10, 10, 200, 200)];
 
NSURL *targetURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://unec.edu.az/application/uploads/2014/12/pdf-sample.pdf"];
    NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:targetURL];
    [pdfWebView loadRequest:request];
    [self.view addSubview:pdfWebView];

WKWebView: I find this question to be the best place to let people know that they should start using WKWebview as UIWebView is now deprecated.

Objective C

WKWebView *webView = [[WKWebView alloc] initWithFrame:self.view.frame];
webView.navigationDelegate = self;
NSURL *nsurl=[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://www.example.com/document.pdf"];
NSURLRequest *nsrequest=[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:nsurl];
[webView loadRequest:nsrequest];
[self.view addSubview:webView];

Swift

let myURLString = "https://www.example.com/document.pdf"
let url = NSURL(string: myURLString)
let request = NSURLRequest(URL: url!)  
let webView = WKWebView(frame: self.view.frame)
webView.navigationDelegate = self
webView.loadRequest(request)
view.addSubview(webView)

I haven't copied this code directly from Xcode, so it might, it might contain some syntax error. Please check while using it.