Question

Word Macro that deletes rows...

Asked by: MitchellVII

Hi,

I have a Word Macro that goes through a document table and deletes rows based upon certain criteria.  My problem is that some of my rows begin with merged cells.  This seems to throw an error since the code can't identify exactly what size the row is.

So, two questions:

1. Can I write the code to just ignore merged cells and only evaluate rows beggining with non-merged cells?
2. All of my merged cell rows are at the top of the document.  Can I get the code to start at a certain place ad then run through the rows?  For instance, If I wanted to start the loop at the row containing the words, "Working History", how would I change the code below to do that?

Thanks!

Sub DelRows()
 
'Delete empty rows in a table:
Dim rw As Row
Dim tbl As Table
Dim strText As String
 
Const ch = ">"  'character to be found
 
Set tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(2)
For Each rw In tbl.Rows
    rw.Range.Select
    strText = rw.Cells(1).Range.Text
    If InStr(strText, ch) Then
        rw.Delete
    End If
Next rw
 
End Sub

                                  
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Asked On
2009-09-27 at 16:11:15ID24765646
Topics

Microsoft Word

,

Visual Basic Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: GrahamSkanPosted on 2009-09-28 at 00:54:13ID: 25437386

I have tried with a table where the cells from the first and second columns are merged in one of the rows, and I don't get an error. What error do you get, and on which line?

If the cells were vertically merged, e.g. by combining the first-column cells in adjacent rows, then I would expect an error (no 5991 - Cannot access individual rows in this collection because the table has vertically merged cells.) on the For Each line.

However merging is done you can step through each cell in a table and examine the RowIndex and ColumnIndex properties. However, it isn't always easy to deduce from that  whether the cell has been merged horizontally or vertically, but the attached 'DelRowsByCell' code also works in my tests.

You could step through the rows collection by index:

For r = 4 to tbl.Rows.Count
 rw = tbl.Rows(r)

Or you could still use the For Each, but check the RowIndex of the first cell as in the DellRowsAfter sub below.

 

Sub DelRowsByCell()
 
'Delete empty rows in a table:
Dim rw As Row
Dim tbl As Table
Dim cl As Cell
Dim strText As String
 
Const ch = ">"  'character to be found
 
Set tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
For Each cl In tbl.Range.Cells
    If cl.ColumnIndex = 1 Then
        strText = cl.Range.Text
        If InStr(strText, ch) Then
            tbl.Rows(cl.RowIndex).Delete
        End If
    End If
Next cl
 
End Sub
 
Sub DelRowsAfter()
 
'Delete empty rows in a table:
Dim rw As Row
Dim tbl As Table
Dim strText As String
 
Const ch = ">"  'character to be found
 
Set tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(2)
For Each rw In tbl.Rows
    If rw.Cells(1).RowIndex > 3 Then
        strText = rw.Cells(1).Range.Text
        If InStr(strText, ch) Then
            rw.Delete
        End If
    End If
Next rw
 
End Sub
                                              
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by: MitchellVIIPosted on 2009-09-28 at 13:31:13ID: 25443068

Hi Graham,

Thanks for that but I am still throwing an error.  It would be helpful if it told me what the error was, but it just throws a dialog box with a red X in it, so who knows?

Anyway, it seems that it doesn't like it when cells are vertically merged to the left and not vertically merged to the right.  i have some rows where the first cell of 2 rows is merged an the rest of the cells are not.  Apparently doesn't care for this at all.

Another solution would be to simply split the table and evaluate only the target table then recombine them.  I was trying to void that, but may not be able to.

 

by: MitchellVIIPosted on 2009-09-28 at 13:36:30ID: 25443139

Can we write some code that will just start at the cell that contains "Work History" and then cycle from there?  It doesn't seem to like cycling throw rows with merged cells.

Another possibility.  Can we just have it deleted any rows with ">" in the first cell individually without cycling through the rows to do it?  Kind of like a loop that says - find the cell that contains '>' - delete that - loop, find the cell that contains '>', delete that - and so on?

 

by: GrahamSkanPosted on 2009-09-28 at 14:34:01ID: 25443585

It's strange that the error message is like that, but if there is vertical merging then we can't use the Rows collection of the table.

However we can use the rows collection of the range


    Dim tbl As Table
    Dim cl As Cell
    Dim bStart As Boolean
    
    Set tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
    For Each cl In tbl.Range.Cells
        If bStart Then
            If cl.ColumnIndex = 1 Then
                If Left(cl.Range.Text, 1) = ">" Then
                    cl.Range.Rows.Delete
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Else
            If InStr(cl.Range.Text, "Work History") > 0 Then
                bStart = True
            End If
        End If
    Next cl
                                              
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by: MitchellVIIPosted on 2009-09-28 at 15:36:10ID: 25444224

Hmm, ok.  Where do we define the "Range".  Do I have to select it?  Is that what a range in Word is?

 

by: MitchellVIIPosted on 2009-09-28 at 15:38:56ID: 25444242

Don't we need to define a range?

 

by: GrahamSkanPosted on 2009-09-28 at 17:06:37ID: 25444724

Sorry Mitch, I think my comment has confused you.

I used the Rows of the cell range without actually defining an object variable for the range.

I was just saying that we can't use the Rows collection from the table itself.

I could have doem it like this:

    Dim tbl As Table
    Dim cl As Cell
    Dim bStart As Boolean
    Dim rng As Range
    
    Set tbl = ActiveDocument.Tables(1)
    For Each cl In tbl.Range.Cells
        Set rng = cl.Range
        If bStart Then
            If cl.ColumnIndex = 1 Then
                If Left(rng.Text, 1) = ">" Then
                    rng.Rows.Delete
                    Exit For
                End If
            End If
        Else
            If InStr(rng.Text, "Work History") > 0 Then
                bStart = True
            End If
        End If
    Next cl
                                              
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by: GrahamSkanPosted on 2009-10-26 at 17:24:30ID: 25668326

Thanks, Bill

I hope that was helpful.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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