How to: Loop Through Found Items in Documents

Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0)

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Document-level projects Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Word 2003 Word 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

Applies to

The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office.

Project type

Document-level projects
Application-level projects

Microsoft Office version

Word 2003
Word 2007

For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

The Find class has a Found property, which returns true whenever a searched-for item is found. You can loop through all instances found in a Range using the Execute method.

To loop through found items

Declare a Range object.

The following code example can be used in a document-level customization.

Visual Basic

Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Content

Word.Range rng = this.Content;

The following code example can be used in an application-level add-in. This example uses the active document.

Visual Basic

Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Application.ActiveDocument.Content

Word.Document document = this.Application.ActiveDocument;
Word.Range rng = document.Content;

Use the Found property in a loop to search for all occurrences of the string in the document, and increment an integer variable by 1 each time the string is found.

Visual Basic

rng.Find.ClearFormatting()
rng.Find.Forward = True
rng.Find.Text = "find me"

rng.Find.Execute()

Do While rng.Find.Found = True
    intFound += 1
    rng.Find.Execute()
Loop

rng.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
rng.Find.Forward = true; 
rng.Find.Text = "find me"; 

rng.Find.Execute(
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, 
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
    ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

while (rng.Find.Found) 
{ 
    intFound++;
    rng.Find.Execute(
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, 
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
}

Display the number of times the string was found in a message box.

Visual Basic

MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " & intFound.ToString())

MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " + intFound.ToString());

The following examples show the complete method.

Document-Level Customization Example

To loop through items in a document-level customization

The following example shows the complete code for a document-level customization. To use this code, run it from the ThisDocument class in your project.

Visual Basic

Private Sub FindLoop()
    Dim intFound As Integer = 0
    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Content

    rng.Find.ClearFormatting()
    rng.Find.Forward = True
    rng.Find.Text = "find me"

    rng.Find.Execute()

    Do While rng.Find.Found = True
        intFound += 1
        rng.Find.Execute()
    Loop

    MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " & intFound.ToString())
End Sub

private void FindLoop() 
{ 
    int intFound = 0; 
    Word.Range rng = this.Content; 

    rng.Find.ClearFormatting(); 
    rng.Find.Forward = true; 
    rng.Find.Text = "find me"; 

    rng.Find.Execute(
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, 
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

    while (rng.Find.Found) 
    { 
        intFound++;
        rng.Find.Execute(
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, 
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
    } 

    MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " + intFound.ToString()); 
}

Application-Level Add-in Example

To loop through items in an application-level add-in

The following example shows the complete code for an application-level add-in. To use this code, run it from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

Visual Basic

Private Sub FindLoop()
    Dim intFound As Integer = 0
    Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Application.ActiveDocument.Content

    rng.Find.ClearFormatting()
    rng.Find.Forward = True
    rng.Find.Text = "find me"

    rng.Find.Execute()

    Do While rng.Find.Found = True
        intFound += 1
        rng.Find.Execute()
    Loop

    MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " & intFound.ToString())
End Sub

private void FindLoop()
{
    int intFound = 0;
    Word.Document document = this.Application.ActiveDocument;
    Word.Range rng = document.Content;

    rng.Find.ClearFormatting();
    rng.Find.Forward = true;
    rng.Find.Text = "find me";

    rng.Find.Execute(
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
        ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);

    while (rng.Find.Found)
    {
        intFound++;
        rng.Find.Execute(
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
            ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
    }

    MessageBox.Show("Strings found: " + intFound.ToString());
}

Tasks

How to: Search for Text in Documents

How to: Set Search Options in Word

How to: Define and Select Ranges in Documents

How to: Restore Selections After Searches

Concepts

The Variable missing and Optional Parameters in Office Solutions