Find and replace options

FindOptions controls how the find and replace methods match text. The search is case sensitive by default. WholeWord matches whole words only, UseRegularExpressions treats the search text as a regular expression and substitutes group references such as $1 in the replacement text, UseWildcards enables the wildcards *, ? and [ ], Scope restricts the search to parts of the document and MaxResults limits the number of matches.

Independently of the options, a space element, a tab and a line break count as characters of the paragraph text (spaces, \t and \n), so a search text may contain them and a match may span them, and the text a field displays is found but never replaced. The paragraph mark is the character \r. A search text that contains it is matched against the consecutive paragraphs and headings of a body, a section, a list item, a table cell, a text box, a note or a header as one text in which every paragraph ends with \r: "a\rb" finds "a" at the end of one paragraph followed by "b" at the start of the next, and "\r\r" finds an empty paragraph. Any other search text is matched against each paragraph on its own, so ^ and $ in a regular expression still mean the start and the end of a paragraph. A replacement that covers a paragraph mark joins the paragraphs, which keep the kind and the style of the first one, and \r in a replacement text splits a paragraph or a heading. The last paragraph mark of a body, a cell or a text box cannot be deleted, and a match that starts or ends inside a hyperlink or another element nested in a span is not joined.

C# example - Case insensitive, whole words only

using System;
using Independentsoft.Office.Odf;

namespace Sample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TextDocument doc = new TextDocument("c:\\test\\input.odt");

            FindOptions options = new FindOptions();
            options.MatchCase = false;
            options.WholeWord = true;

            //"cat" is replaced, "catalog" is not
            int count = doc.Replace("cat", "dog", options);

            Console.WriteLine(count + " occurrences replaced.");

            doc.Save("c:\\test\\output.odt", true);
        }
    }
}

C# example - Regular expressions

using System;
using Independentsoft.Office.Odf;

namespace Sample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TextDocument doc = new TextDocument("c:\\test\\input.odt");

            FindOptions options = new FindOptions();
            options.UseRegularExpressions = true;

            //"Smith, John" becomes "John Smith"
            doc.Replace("([A-Za-z]+), ([A-Za-z]+)", "$2 $1", options);

            doc.Save("c:\\test\\output.odt", true);
        }
    }
}

C# example - Wildcards, scope and maximum number of results

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Independentsoft.Office.Odf;

namespace Sample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TextDocument doc = new TextDocument("c:\\test\\input.odt");

            FindOptions options = new FindOptions(SearchScope.Body | SearchScope.HeadersAndFooters);
            options.UseWildcards = true;
            options.MaxResults = 10;

            IList<FindResult> results = doc.Find("Invoice *", options);

            foreach (FindResult result in results)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(result.Story + ": " + result.Text);
            }
        }
    }
}

C# example - Paragraph marks

using System;
using Independentsoft.Office.Odf;

namespace Sample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TextDocument document = new TextDocument("c:\\test\\input.odt");

            //every empty paragraph is removed: two paragraph marks become one
            int removed = document.Replace("\r\r", "\r");

            //every line break becomes a paragraph of its own
            int split = document.Replace("\n", "\r");

            //lines broken by a hyphen and a paragraph mark are joined again
            int joined = document.Replace("-\r", "");

            Console.WriteLine(removed + " empty paragraphs removed, " + split + " line breaks split, " + joined + " hyphenated lines joined.");

            document.Save("c:\\test\\output.odt", true);
        }
    }
}

VB example

Imports System
Imports Independentsoft.Office.Odf

Module Module1
    Sub Main(ByVal args As String())

        Dim doc As TextDocument = New TextDocument("c:\test\input.odt")

        Dim options As FindOptions = New FindOptions()
        options.MatchCase = False
        options.WholeWord = True

        Dim count As Integer = doc.Replace("cat", "dog", options)

        Console.WriteLine(count.ToString() + " occurrences replaced.")

        doc.Save("c:\test\output.odt", True)

    End Sub
End Module

ODF .NET > Tutorial > Find and replace options

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