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How to find and replace line break in Word document as paragraph mark?

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Syncfusion Essential DocIO is a .NET Core Word library used to create, read, and edit Word documents programmatically without Microsoft Word or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can find and replace line break in Word document with paragraph mark using C#.

Steps to find and replace line break in Word document with paragraph mark:

  1. Create a new C# .NET Core console application project.

Create .NET Core console application in Visual Studio

  1. Install the Syncfusion.DocIO.NET.Core NuGet packages as a reference to your ASP.NET Core application from NuGet.org.

Add DocIO NuGet packages of ASP.NET Core

  1. Include the following namespaces in the Program.cs file:

C#

using Syncfusion.DocIO;
using Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS;
  1. Use the following code snippet to find and replace line break in Word document with paragraph mark:

C#

using (FileStream fileStreamPath = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath(@"../../../Data/Input.docx"), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
    //Open an existing Word document.
    using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument(fileStreamPath, FormatType.Docx))
    {
        //Replace line break with paragraph mark in the Word document.
        ReplaceLineBreakWithPara(document);
        //Create file stream.
        using (FileStream outputFileStream = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath("../../../Sample.docx"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
        {
            //Save the Word document to file stream.
            document.Save(outputFileStream, FormatType.Docx); 
        }
    }
}

5. Helper methods to find and replace line break in Word document with paragraph mark.

C#

/// <summary>
/// Replace the line break with paragraph mark in the Word document.
/// </summary>
private static void ReplaceLineBreakWithPara(WordDocument document)
{
    foreach (WSection section in document.Sections)
    {
        //Access the body section of Word document.
        WTextBody sectionBody = section.Body;
        IterateTextBody(sectionBody);
        WHeadersFooters headersFooters = section.HeadersFooters;
        //Iterate through the TextBody of OddHeader and OddFooter.
        IterateTextBody(headersFooters.OddHeader);
        IterateTextBody(headersFooters.OddFooter);
    }
}
/// <summary>
/// Iterate textbody child elements.
/// </summary>
private static void IterateTextBody(WTextBody textBody)
{
    //Iterate the child items of text body.
    for (int i = 0; i < textBody.ChildEntities.Count; i++)
    { 
        //Check the text body items.
        IEntity bodyItemEntity = textBody.ChildEntities[i];
        //Check the entity type.
        switch (bodyItemEntity.EntityType)
        {
            case EntityType.Paragraph:
                WParagraph paragraph = bodyItemEntity as WParagraph;
                //Iterate through the paragraph.
                IterateParagraphItems(paragraph.Items);
                break;
            case EntityType.Table:
                //Iterate through table.
                IterateTable(bodyItemEntity as WTable);
                break;
            case EntityType.BlockContentControl:
                BlockContentControl blockContentControl = bodyItemEntity as BlockContentControl;
                //Iterate to the body items of Block Content Control.
                IterateTextBody(blockContentControl.TextBody);
                break;
        }
    }
}
/// <summary>
/// Iterate table child elements.
/// </summary>
private static void IterateTable(WTable table)
{
    //Iterate the row collection in a table.
    foreach (WTableRow row in table.Rows)
    {
        //Iterate the cell collection in a table row.
        foreach (WTableCell cell in row.Cells)
        {
            IterateTextBody(cell);
        }
    }
}
/// <summary>
/// Iterate paragraph child elements.
/// </summary>
private static void IterateParagraphItems(ParagraphItemCollection paraItems)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < paraItems.Count; i++)
    {
        Entity entity = paraItems[i];
        //Check the element type by using EntityType.
        switch (entity.EntityType)
        {
            case EntityType.Break:
                Break breakItem = entity as Break;
                //Replace line break with paragraph mark.
                if (breakItem.BreakType == BreakType.LineBreak)
                {
                    WParagraph ownerPara = breakItem.OwnerParagraph;
                    int breakIndex = ownerPara.ChildEntities.IndexOf(breakItem);
                    int paraIndex = ownerPara.OwnerTextBody.ChildEntities.IndexOf(ownerPara);
 
                    //Create new paragraph by cloning the existing paragraph.
                    WParagraph newPara = ownerPara.Clone() as WParagraph;                           
                    //Remove paragraph child entities from the index of break item.
                    while (breakIndex <ownerPara.ChildEntities.Count)                           
                    ownerPara.ChildEntities.RemoveAt(breakIndex);
                    // Remove paragraph child entities from index zero upto index of break in cloned paragraph.
                    for (int j = 0; j < breakIndex + 1; j++)
                    newPara.ChildEntities.RemoveAt(0);
                    //Insert the new paragraph next to the line break paragraph.
                    ownerPara.OwnerTextBody.ChildEntities.Insert(paraIndex + 1, newPara);
                }
                break;
            case EntityType.TextBox:
                //Iterate the body items of textbox.
                WTextBox textBox = entity as WTextBox;
                IterateTextBody(textBox.TextBoxBody);
                break;
            case EntityType.Shape:
                //Iterate the body items of shape.
                Shape shape = entity as Shape;
                IterateTextBody(shape.TextBody);
                break;
            case EntityType.InlineContentControl:
                //Iterate the paragraph items of inline content control.
                InlineContentControl inlineContentControl = entity as InlineContentControl;
                IterateParagraphItems(inlineContentControl.ParagraphItems);
                break;
        }
    }
}

A complete working sample to find and replace line break in Word document with paragraph mark using C# can be downloaded from GitHub.

By executing the program, you will get the output document as follows.

Output Word document generated in ASP.NET Core

Take a moment to peruse the documentation where you can find basic Word document processing options along with the features like mail merge, merge and split documents, find and replace text in the Word document, protect the Word documents, and most importantly, the PDF and Image conversions with code examples.

Explore more about the rich set of Syncfusion Word Framework features.

See Also:

How to replace the particular text with hyperlink in Word document

How to find and replace text inside table in Word document

How to find and replace text in headers and footers of Word document

How to replace text in a Word document with HTML

How to find and replace text with page break in Word document?

How to find and replace text with content control in Word document?

How to find and replace in Word document with text from database?

Note:

Starting with v16.2.0.x, if you reference Syncfusion assemblies from trial setup or from the NuGet feed, include a license key in your projects. Refer to link to learn about generating and registering Syncfusion license key in your application to use the components without trail message.

 

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