VB.Net: Searching Word Document By Line - vb.net

Question

I'm attempting to read through a Word Document (800+ pages) line by line, and if that line contains certain text, in this case Section, simply print that line to console.
Public Sub doIt()
SearchFile("theFilePath", "Section")
Console.WriteLine("SHit")
End Sub
Public Sub SearchFile(ByVal strFilePath As String, ByVal strSearchTerm As String)
Dim sr As StreamReader = New StreamReader(strFilePath)
Dim strLine As String = String.Empty
For Each line As String In sr.ReadLine
If line.Contains(strSearchTerm) = True Then
Console.WriteLine(line)
End If
Next
End Sub
It runs, but it doesn't print out anything. I know the word "Section" is in there multiple times as well.

Answer 1

As already mentioned in the comments, you can't search a Word document the way you are currently doing. You need to create a Word.Application object as mentioned and then load the document so you can search it.
Here is a short example I wrote for you. Please note, you need to add reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word and then you need to add the import statement to your class. For example Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop. Also this grabs each paragraph and then uses the range to look for the word you are searching for, if found it adds it to the list.
Note: Tried and tested - I had this in a button event, but put where you need it.
Try
Dim objWordApp As Word.Application = Nothing
Dim objDoc As Word.Document = Nothing
Dim TextToFind As String = YOURTEXT
Dim TextRange As Word.Range = Nothing
Dim StringLines As New List(Of String)
objWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
If objWordApp IsNot Nothing Then
objWordApp.Visible = False
objDoc = objWordApp.Documents.Open(FileName, )
End If
If objDoc IsNot Nothing Then
'loop through each paragraph in the document and get the range
For Each p As Word.Paragraph In objDoc.Paragraphs
TextRange = p.Range
TextRange.Find.ClearFormatting()
If TextRange.Find.Execute(TextToFind, ) Then
StringLines.Add(p.Range.Text)
End If
Next
If StringLines.Count > 0 Then
MessageBox.Show(String.Join(Environment.NewLine, StringLines.ToArray()))
End If
objDoc.Close()
objWordApp.Quit()
End If
Catch ex As Exception
'publish your exception?
End Try
Update to use Sentences - this will go through each paragraph and grab each sentence, then we can see if the word exists... The benefit of this is it's quicker because we get each paragraph and then search the sentences. We have to get the paragraph in order to get the sentences...
Try
Dim objWordApp As Word.Application = Nothing
Dim objDoc As Word.Document = Nothing
Dim TextToFind As String = "YOUR TEXT TO FIND"
Dim TextRange As Word.Range = Nothing
Dim StringLines As New List(Of String)
Dim SentenceCount As Integer = 0
objWordApp = CreateObject("Word.Application")
If objWordApp IsNot Nothing Then
objWordApp.Visible = False
objDoc = objWordApp.Documents.Open(FileName, )
End If
If objDoc IsNot Nothing Then
For Each p As Word.Paragraph In objDoc.Paragraphs
TextRange = p.Range
TextRange.Find.ClearFormatting()
SentenceCount = TextRange.Sentences.Count
If SentenceCount > 0 Then
Do Until SentenceCount = 0
Dim sentence As String = TextRange.Sentences.Item(SentenceCount).Text
If sentence.Contains(TextToFind) Then
StringLines.Add(sentence.Trim())
End If
SentenceCount -= 1
Loop
End If
Next
If StringLines.Count > 0 Then
MessageBox.Show(String.Join(Environment.NewLine, StringLines.ToArray()))
End If
objDoc.Close()
objWordApp.Quit()
End If
Catch ex As Exception
'publish your exception?
End Try

Answer 2

Here's a sub that will print each line that the search-string is found on, rather than each paragraph. It will mimic the behavior of using the streamreader in your example to read/check each line:
'Add reference to and import Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word
Public Sub SearchFile(ByVal strFilePath As String, ByVal strSearchTerm As String)
Dim wordObject As Word.Application = New Word.Application
wordObject.Visible = False
Dim objWord As Word.Document = wordObject.Documents.Open(strFilePath)
objWord.Characters(1).Select()
Dim bolEOF As Boolean = False
Do Until bolEOF
wordObject.Selection.MoveEnd(WdUnits.wdLine, 1)
If wordObject.Selection.Text.ToUpper.Contains(strSearchTerm.ToUpper) Then
Console.WriteLine(wordObject.Selection.Text.Replace(vbCr, "").Replace(vbCr, "").Replace(vbCrLf, ""))
End If
wordObject.Selection.Collapse(WdCollapseDirection.wdCollapseEnd)
If wordObject.Selection.Bookmarks.Exists("\EndOfDoc") Then
bolEOF = True
End If
Loop
objWord.Close()
wordObject.Quit()
objWord = Nothing
wordObject = Nothing
Me.Close()
End Sub
It is a slightly modified vb.net implementation of nawfal's solution to parsing word document lines