OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide - OpenOffice.org wiki

Dim Replace As Object
Dim BritishWords(5) As String
Dim USWords(5) As String
BritishWords() = Array("colour", "neighbour", "centre", "behaviour", _
"metre", "through")
USWords() = Array("color", "neighbor", "center", "behavior", _
"meter", "thru")
Doc = ThisComponent
Replace = Doc.createReplaceDescriptor
For I = 0 To 5
Replace.SearchString = BritishWords(I)
Replace.ReplaceString = USWords(I)
Doc.replaceAll(Replace)
Next I
Editing Text Documents
The expressions for searching and replacing are set using the SearchString and ReplaceString properties of
the ReplaceDescriptors. The actual replacement process is finally implemented using the replaceAll
method of the document object, which replaces all occurrences of the search expression.
Example: searching and replacing text with regular expressions
The replacement function of OpenOffice.org is particularly effective when used in conjunction with regular
expressions. These provide the option of defining a variable search expression with place holders and special
characters rather than a fixed value.
The regular expressions supported by OpenOffice.org are described in detail in the online help section for
OpenOffice.org. Here are a few examples:
A period within a search expression stands for any character. The search expression sh.rt therefore can stand
for both for shirt and for short.
The character ^ marks the start of a paragraph. All occurrences of the name Peter that are at the start of a
paragraph can therefore be found using the search expression ^Peter.
The character $ marks a paragraph end. All occurrences of the name Peter that are at the end of a paragraph
can therefore be found using the search expression Peter$.
A * indicates that the preceding character may be repeated any number of times. It can be combined with the
period as a place holder for any character. The temper.*e expression, for example, can stand for the
expressions temperance and temperature.
The following example shows how all empty lines in a text document can be removed with the help of the regular
expression ^$:
Dim Doc As Object
Dim Replace As Object
Dim I As Long
Doc = ThisComponent
Replace = Doc.createReplaceDescriptor
Replace.SearchRegularExpression = True
Replace.SearchString = "^$"
Replace.ReplaceString = ""
Doc.replaceAll(Replace)
More Than Just Text
So far, this chapter has only dealt with text paragraphs and their portions. But text documents may also contain
other objects. These include tables, drawings, text fields and directories. All of these objects can be anchored to
any point within a text.
Thanks to these common features, all of these objects in OpenOffice.org support a common basic service called
com.sun.star.text.TextContent. This provides the following properties:
Chapter 6 · Text Documents 81