Find and Replace in Excel Document

26 Aug 202411 minutes to read

Find

XlsIO provides the following options to perform find using ExcelFindType in an Excel workbook or worksheet:

  • Search for number
  • Search for text
  • Search for values
  • Search for comments
  • Search for formula

Additionally, you can search for case-sensitive data and match the entire cell contents using ExcelFindOptions. All occurrences of a text in an Excel worksheet can be found using the FindAll method.

The following code example illustrates how to find all occurrences of text in a worksheet with different find options.

using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
    IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
    FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(@"../../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
    IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream);
    IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
    IRange[] result1 = worksheet.FindAll("Gill", ExcelFindType.Text);

    //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
    IRange[] result2 = worksheet.FindAll(700, ExcelFindType.Number);

    //Searches for the given string in formulas
    IRange[] result3 = worksheet.FindAll("=SUM(F10:F11)", ExcelFindType.Formula);

    //Searches for the given string in calculated value, number and text
    IRange[] result4 = worksheet.FindAll("41", ExcelFindType.Values);

    //Searches for the given string in comments
    IRange[] result5 = worksheet.FindAll("Desk", ExcelFindType.Comments);

    //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and case matched
    IRange[] result6 = worksheet.FindAll("Pen Set", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase);

    //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and the entire cell content matching to search text
    IRange[] result7 = worksheet.FindAll("5", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent);

    //Saving the workbook as stream
    FileStream stream = new FileStream("Find.xlsx", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
    workbook.SaveAs(stream);
    stream.Dispose();
}
using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
  IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
  application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
  IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open("../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx");
  IWorksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

  //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
  IRange[] result1 = worksheet.FindAll("Gill", ExcelFindType.Text);

  //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
  IRange[] result2 = worksheet.FindAll(700, ExcelFindType.Number);

  //Searches for the given string in formulas
  IRange[] result3 = worksheet.FindAll("=SUM(F10:F11)", ExcelFindType.Formula);

  //Searches for the given string in calculated value, number and text
  IRange[] result4 = worksheet.FindAll("41", ExcelFindType.Values);

  //Searches for the given string in comments
  IRange[] result5 = worksheet.FindAll("Desk", ExcelFindType.Comments);

  //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and case matched
  IRange[] result6 = worksheet.FindAll("Pen Set", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase);

  //Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and the entire cell content matching to search text
  IRange[] result7 = worksheet.FindAll("5", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent);

  //Saving the workbook
  workbook.SaveAs("Find.xlsx");
}
Using excelEngine As New ExcelEngine()
    Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx
    Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Open("../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx")
    Dim worksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)

    'Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
    Dim result1 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("Gill", ExcelFindType.Text)

    'Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet
    Dim result2 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll(700, ExcelFindType.Number)

    'Searches for the given string in formulas
    Dim result3 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("=SUM(F10:F11)", ExcelFindType.Formula)

    'Searches for the given string in calculated value, number and text
    Dim result4 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("41", ExcelFindType.Values)

    'Searches for the given string in comments
    Dim result5 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("Desk", ExcelFindType.Comments)

    'Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and case matched
    Dim result6 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("Pen Set", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase)

    'Searches for the given string within the text of worksheet and the entire cell content matching to search text
    Dim result7 As IRange() = worksheet.FindAll("5", ExcelFindType.Text, ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent)

    'Saving the workbook
    workbook.SaveAs("Find.xlsx")
End Using

A complete working example to find all occurrences of text in a worksheet with different find options in C# is present on this GitHub page.

Replace

It is possible to replace a text with another text with the help of Replace method which searches for text which should be changed. A string can be replaced, with the data of various data types and data sources, such as data table, data column and array.

To know more about replace overloads, please refer Replace in the API documentation section.

The following code example illustrates how to replace all occurrences of given string with various data.

using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
    IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
    FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("../../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
    IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream);
    IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    //Replaces the given string with another string
    worksheet.Replace("Wilson", "William");

    //Replaces the given string with another string on match case
    worksheet.Replace("4.99", "4.90", ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase);

    //Replaces the given string with another string matching entire cell content to the search word
    worksheet.Replace("Pen Set", "Pen", ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent);

    //Replaces the given string with DateTime value
    worksheet.Replace("DateValue",DateTime.Now);

    //Replaces the given string with Array
    worksheet.Replace("Central", new string[] { "Central", "East" }, true);

    //Saving the workbook as stream
    FileStream stream = new FileStream("Replace.xlsx", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
    workbook.Version = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
    workbook.SaveAs(stream);
    stream.Dispose();
}
using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
  IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
  application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
  IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open("../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx");
  IWorksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

  //Replaces the given string with another string
  worksheet.Replace("Wilson", "William");

  //Replaces the given string with another string on match case
  worksheet.Replace("4.99", "4.90", ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase);

  //Replaces the given string with another string matching entire cell content to the search word
  worksheet.Replace("Pen Set", "Pen", ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent);

  //Replaces the given string with DateTime value
  worksheet.Replace("DateValue",DateTime.Now);

  //Replaces the given string with Array
  worksheet.Replace("Central", new string[] { "Central", "East" }, true);
  
  //Saving the workbook
  workbook.SaveAs("Replace.xlsx");
}
Using excelEngine As New ExcelEngine()
    Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx
    Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Open("../../Data/InputTemplate.xlsx")
    Dim worksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)

    ' Replaces the given string with another string
    worksheet.Replace("Wilson", "William")

    ' Replaces the given string with another string on match case
    worksheet.Replace("4.99", "4.90", ExcelFindOptions.MatchCase)

    ' Replaces the given string with another string matching entire cell content to the search word
    worksheet.Replace("Pen Set", "Pen", ExcelFindOptions.MatchEntireCellContent)

    ' Replaces the given string with DateTime value
    worksheet.Replace("DateValue", DateTime.Now)

    ' Replaces the given string with Array
    worksheet.Replace("Central", New String() {"Central", "East"}, True)

    ' Saving the workbook
    workbook.SaveAs("Replace.xlsx")
End Using

A complete working example to replace all occurrences of given string in a worksheet with different find options in C# is present on this GitHub page.