Programmatically loop through found items in documents

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.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and VSTO Add-in projects for Word. For more information, see Features available by Office application and project type.

To loop through found items

Declare a Range object.

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

Word.Range rng = this.Content;

Dim rng As Word.Range = Me.Content

The following code example can be used in a VSTO Add-in. This example uses the active document.

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

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

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);
}

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

Display the number of times the string was found in a message box.
- C#
- VB
```
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 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()); 
}

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

VSTO Add-in example

To loop through items in a VSTO Add-in

The following example shows the complete code for a VSTO Add-in. To use this code, run it from the ThisAddIn class in your project.

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());
}

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

Last updated on 2017-02-02