Word VBA, Read All Lines

Jun 09, 2015 by azurous in VBA for Word

In this article I will explain how you can use VBA to read every line in a word document and store the values in a string array/collection.

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Method 1:

In this method the VBA code will select the entire document. After selecting the entire document the lines will be split using the String.Split() function:

Sub Example() Dim strAll As String Dim arrString() As String Selection.WholeStory strAll = Selection.Range.Text arrString = Strings.Split(strAll, vbCr) End Sub

Assume we have the following data in the document:

Result after running the code:

The first line selects the whole document:

Selection.WholeStory

The next line assigns the text to a string variable:

strAll = Selection.Range.Text

The last line of code uses the String.Split() function to split the string based on the vbcr delimiter:

arrString = Strings.Split(strAll, vbCr)

For more information about the String.Split() function please see the link below. Although the link is for Excel, its concepts are applicable to VBA for Word:

Excel VBA, String Processing and Manipulation

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Method 2:

In this method each line is read separately into the string array:

Sub example2() Dim strLine As String Dim colString As Collection Dim intLastLine As Integer Dim intLastPage As Integer Dim flag As Boolean 'get the last line number Selection.EndKey unit:=wdStory intLastLine = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber) intLastPage = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber) 'initialize the string collection Set colString = New Collection 'move back to the start of the document Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdStory 'loop until the end of the document is reached flag = True While flag = True 'check if the end of the document has been reached If (Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber) _ = intLastLine) And intLastPage = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber) Then flag = False End If 'select the line Selection.EndKey unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend 'get the line data strLine = Selection.Range.Text colString.Add (strLine) 'move down a line Selection.MoveDown unit:=wdLine, Count:=1 Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdLine Wend End Sub

Result after running the code:

The lines below move the cursor to the end of the document and get the last page and line number:

'get the last line number Selection.EndKey unit:=wdStory intLastLine = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber) intLastPage = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber)

The while loop continues until the end of the document is reached:

While flag = True ... Wend

The If statement checks if the end of the document has been reached:

If (Selection.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber) _ = intLastLine) And intLastPage = _ Selection.Range.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber) Then flag = False End If

The lines below read the current line and adds the text string to the string collection:

'select the line Selection.EndKey unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend 'get the line data strLine = Selection.Range.Text colString.Add (strLine)

The code below moves the cursor to the next line:

Selection.MoveDown unit:=wdLine, Count:=1 Selection.HomeKey unit:=wdLine

You can download the file and code related to this article from the link below

Word VBA Read All Lines.docm