OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide - OpenOffice.org wiki

Editing Text Documents
Once the SearchDescriptor has been prepared as requested, it can be applied to the text document. The
OpenOffice.org documents provide the findFirst and findNext methods for this purpose:
Found = Doc.findFirst (SearchDesc)
Do Until IsNull(Found)
' Edit search results...
Found = Doc.findNext( Found.End, SearchDesc)
Loop
The example finds all matches in a loop and returns a TextRange object, which refers to the found text passage.
Example: Similarity Search
This example shows how a text can be searched for the word "turnover" and the results formatted in bold type. A
similarity search is used so that not only the word “turnover”, but also the plural form "turnovers" and
declinations such as "turnover's" are found. The found expressions differ by up to two letters from the search
expression:
Dim SearchDesc As Object
Dim Doc As Object
Doc = ThisComponent
SearchDesc = Doc.createSearchDescriptor
SearchDesc.SearchString="turnover"
SearchDesc.SearchSimilarity = True
SearchDesc.SearchSimilarityAdd = 2
SearchDesc.SearchSimilarityExchange = 2
SearchDesc.SearchSimilarityRemove = 2
SearchDesc.SearchSimilarityRelax = False
Found = Doc.findFirst (SearchDesc)
Do Until IsNull(Found)
Found.CharWeight = com.sun.star.awt.FontWeight.BOLD
Found = Doc.findNext( Found.End, SearchDesc)
Loop
Note – VBA : The basic idea of search and replace in OpenOffice.org is comparable to that used in VBA. Both
interfaces provide you with an object, through which the properties for searching and replacing can be defined.
This object is then applied to the required text area in order to perform the action. Whereas the responsible
auxiliary object in VBA can be reached through the Find property of the Range object, in OpenOffice.org Basic it
is created by the createSearchDescriptor or createReplaceDescriptor call of the document object.
Even the search properties and methods available differ.
As in the old API from OpenOffice.org, searching and replacing text in the new API is also performed using the
document object. Whereas previously there was an object called SearchSettings especially for defining the
search options, in the new object searches are now performed using a SearchDescriptor or
ReplaceDescriptor object for automatically replacing text. These objects cover not only the options, but also
the current search text and, if necessary, the associated text replacement. The descriptor objects are created using
the document object, completed in accordance with the relevant requests, and then transferred back to the
document object as parameters for the search methods.
Replacing Text Portions
Just as with the search function, the replacement function from OpenOffice.org is also available in
OpenOffice.org Basic. The two functions are handled identically. A special object which records the parameters
for the process is also first needed for a replacement process. It is called a ReplaceDescriptor and supports the
com.sun.star.util.ReplaceDescriptor service. All the properties of the SearchDescriptor described in the
previous paragraph are also supported by ReplaceDescriptor. For example, during a replacement process,
case sensitivity can also be activated and deactivated, and similarity searches can be performed.
The following example demonstrates the use of ReplaceDescriptors for a search within a OpenOffice.org
document.
Dim I As Long
Dim Doc As Object
80 OpenOffice.org 3.2 BASIC Guide · March 2010