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How to find the empty paragraphs in the Word document using DocIO in LightSwitch Silverlight ?
3 mins read
You may have various requirements to check whether a paragraph is empty or not. A paragraph can be considered empty if the child entities count is zero, contains only the elements invisible in the viewer (like bookmarks, field marks, etc.), or the text contains only escape characters (like whitespace, new lines, etc.).
The following code demonstrates how to check whether the paragraph has no child items.
C#
private bool IsEmptyParagraph(IWParagraph paragraph)
{
// Returns true, if the paragraph child entities count is zero.
return (paragraph.ChildEntities.Count == 0);
}
VB
Private Function IsEmptyParagraph(paragraph As IWParagraph) As Boolean ' Returns true, if the paragraph child entities count is zero. Return (paragraph.ChildEntities.Count = 0) End Function
The following code demonstrates how to check whether the paragraph has no child items that are visible in document viewer.
C#
private bool IsEmptyParagraph(IWParagraph paragraph)
{
for (int index = 0; index < paragraph.ChildEntities.Count; index++)
{
// Checks for BookmarkStart, BookmarkEnd, WFieldMark entities.
if (paragraph.ChildEntities[index] is BookmarkStart ||
paragraph.ChildEntities[index] is BookmarkEnd ||
paragraph.ChildEntities[index] is WFieldMark)
continue;
else
// Returns false if any other paragraph item exists.
return false;
}
return true;
}
VB
Private Function IsEmptyParagraph(paragraph As IWParagraph) As Boolean
For index As Integer = 0 To paragraph.ChildEntities.Count - 1
' Checks for BookmarkStart, BookmarkEnd, WFieldMark entities.
If TypeOf paragraph.ChildEntities(index) Is BookmarkStart Or
TypeOf paragraph.ChildEntities(index) Is BookmarkEnd Or
TypeOf paragraph.ChildEntities(index) Is WFieldMark Then
Continue For
Else
' Returns false if any other paragraph item exists.
Return False
End If
Next index
Return True
End Function
The following code demonstrates how to check whether the paragraph has no valid text except escape characters. You can define the escape characters based on your requirement.
C#
private bool IsEmptyParagraph(IWParagraph paragraph)
{
char[] trimCharacters = new char[] { ' ', '\n', '\t', '\v' };
for (int index = 0; index < paragraph.ChildEntities.Count; index++)
{
// Checks if the current entity is a Text range and the text is empty space, tab characters, or new line characters.
if ((paragraph.ChildEntities[index] is WTextRange) &&
(paragraph.ChildEntities[index] as WTextRange).Text.Trim(trimCharacters) == string.Empty)
continue;
else
// Returns false if any other paragraph item exists, or the text range text contains characters other than escape characters.
return false;
}
return true;
}
VB
Private Function IsEmptyParagraph(paragraph As IWParagraph) As Boolean
Dim trimCharacters() As Char = {" ", "\t", "\n", "\v"}
For index As Integer = 0 To paragraph.ChildEntities.Count - 1
' Checks if the current entity is a Text range and the text is empty space, tab characters, or new line characters.
If TypeOf paragraph.ChildEntities(index) Is WTextRange Then
Dim textRange As IWTextRange = paragraph.ChildEntities(index)
If textRange.Text.Trim(trimCharacters) = String.Empty Then
Continue For
End If
Else
' Returns false if any other paragraph item exists, or the text range text contains characters other than escape characters.
Return False
End If
Next index
Return True
End Function
