How to: Loop Through Found Items in Documents

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(Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object) method.

To loop through found items

1. Declare a Range object.

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

   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.

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

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

2. 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.

   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);
   } 
   

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

   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.

  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.

  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());
  }
  

See Also

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