How to convert a table to text in a Word document

Syncfusion Essential DocIO is a .NET Word library used to create, read, edit, and convert Word documents programmatically without Microsoft Word or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can convert a table to text in a Word document using C#.

To achieve this, follow the steps below:

• Retrieve the table from the document and convert it to text by iterating through its rows, cells, and paragraphs.
• Split the converted text into individual lines based on line breaks, with each line representing a row as a new paragraph.
• Remove the original table from the document body.
• Insert each line of the converted text as a new paragraph at the original location of the table.

Steps to convert a table to text in a Word document:

1. Create a new .NET Core console application project.
2. Install the Syncfusion.DocIO.Net.Core NuGet package as a reference to your project from NuGet.org.
   
   

3. Include the following namespaces in Program.cs file
   C#

using Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS;
using Syncfusion.DocIO; 

4. Use the following code example to convert a table to text in a Word document.
   C#

using (FileStream inputStream = new FileStream("Data/Template.docx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
   // Open the template Word document.
   using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument(inputStream, FormatType.Docx))
   {
       // Retrieve the body of the first section.
       WTextBody body = document.Sections[0].Body;
       // Retrieve the first table from the body.
       WTable table = document.Sections[0].Tables[0] as WTable;
       // Convert the table to text.
       string convertedText = ConvertTableToText(document, table);
       // Split the converted text by line breaks to create individual paragraphs.
       string[] paraText = convertedText.Split(new string[] { "\r\n" }, StringSplitOptions.None);
       // Get the index of the table.
       int index = body.ChildEntities.IndexOf(table);
       // Remove the table from the document body.
       body.ChildEntities.Remove(table);
       // Insert each line of the converted text as a new paragraph at the table's original location.
       for (int i = 0; i < paraText.Length; i++)
       {
           // Create a new paragraph.
           IWParagraph paragraph = new WParagraph(document);
           // Append the corresponding line of text to the paragraph.
           paragraph.AppendText(paraText[i]);
           // Insert the paragraph into the body at the correct index.
           body.ChildEntities.Insert(index + i, paragraph);
       }
       // Save the modified document.
       using (FileStream outputStream = new FileStream("Output/Output.docx", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
       {
           document.Save(outputStream, FormatType.Docx);
       }
   }
}

5. Use the following helper method to iterate through the table’s rows, cells, and paragraphs to convert it to text format.
   C#

/// <summary>
/// Converts the specified table into a text format, with cells separated by commas and rows by line breaks.
/// </summary>
static string ConvertTableToText(WordDocument document, WTable table)
{
   // Use StringWriter to build the text output.
   StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
   // Iterate through each row of the table.
   for (int row = 0; row < table.Rows.Count; row++)
   {
       // Iterate through each cell in the current row.
       for (int column = 0; column < table.Rows[row].Cells.Count; column++)
       {
           // Get the current cell.
           WTableCell cell = table.Rows[row].Cells[column];
           // Iterate through each paragraph in the cell.
           for (int para = 0; para < cell.Paragraphs.Count; para++)
           {
               // Get the current paragraph.
               IWParagraph paragraph = cell.Paragraphs[para] as IWParagraph;
               // Iterate through each item in the paragraph.
               for (int item = 0; item < paragraph.Items.Count; item++)
               {
                   // If the item is a text range, write the text to the StringWriter.
                   if (paragraph.Items[item] is IWTextRange textRange)
                   {
                       stringWriter.Write(textRange.Text);
                   }
               }
               // Add a new line for each paragraph within the same cell, except the last one.
               if (para < cell.Paragraphs.Count - 1)
               {
                   stringWriter.Write("\r\n");
               }
           }
           // Add a comma delimiter between cells, except for the last cell in the row.
           if (column < table.Rows[row].Cells.Count - 1)
           {
               stringWriter.Write(",");
           }
       }
       // Add a new line for each row, except for the last row.
       if (row < table.Rows.Count - 1)
       {
           stringWriter.Write("\r\n");
       }
   }
   // Return the built string representing the table content.
   return stringWriter.ToString();
}

You can download a complete working sample to convert a table to text in a Word document from the GitHub.

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

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning about how to convert a table to text in a Word document.

You can refer to our ASP.NET Core DocIO feature tour page to know about its other groundbreaking feature representations and documentation, and how to quickly get started for configuration specifications. You can also explore our ASP.NET Core DocIO example to understand how to create and manipulate data.

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