Read Table In Word Document Using C#

In this blog, I will demonstrate how to read a Table in MS-Word file using C# and Office Open XML SDK.

Office Open XML

 

Office Open XML is introduced by Microsoft to work with documents. For e.g.: - read/write MS word documents.

 

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio
• MS Word Document
• Open XML SDK

Execute below command to Install DocumentFormat.OpenXml SDK in your project

Install-Package DocumentFormat.OpenXml Install-Package DocumentFormat.OpenXml

Note
In this example, I am using a windows form application to interact with word document and display the result on the screen.

 

How to find first table from word document?

Table table =  doc.MainDocumentPart.Document.Body.Elements<Table>().First();

Here .First() is extension method to find first table from word document.

 

The WordprocessingDocument Methods

 

EXTENSION METHOD	DESCRIPTION
.Elements<Table>().First()	To get the first table from the word document
.Elements<Table>().Last()	To get the last table from the word document
.Elements<Table>().FisrtOrDefault()	To get the first table from the word document or return the default value if the document does not contain table.
.Elements<Table>().LastOrDefault()	To get the Last table from word document or return the default value if the document does not contain table.
.Elements<Table>().ElementAt(Index)	To get the exact table from the word document by index number. Default index number is 0.
Table.Elements<TableRow>().ElementAt(index)	To get the exact table row from selected table by index number. Default index number is 0.
Row.Elements<TableCell>().ElementAt(Index)	To get the exact row cell from selected row by index number. Default index number is 0.

 

Execute the following code to read the first table from the word document,

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

namespace ReadTable
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        // To browse and select files on a computer in an application
        private void btnBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            DialogResult result = this.openDB.ShowDialog();
            if (result == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                txtBrowse.Text = openDB.FileName;
            }
        }

        private void btnReadTable_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // Open word document for read
            using (var doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(txtBrowse.Text.Trim(), false))
            {
                // To create a temporary table
                DataTable dt = new DataTable();
                int rowCount = 0;

                // Find the first table in the document.
                Table table = doc.MainDocumentPart.Document.Body.Elements<Table>().First();

                // To get all rows from table
                IEnumerable<TableRow> rows = table.Elements<TableRow>();

                // To read data from rows and to add records to the temporary table
                foreach (TableRow row in rows)
                {
                    if (rowCount == 0)
                    {
                        foreach (TableCell cell in row.Descendants<TableCell>())
                        {
                            dt.Columns.Add(cell.InnerText);
                        }
                        rowCount += 1;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        dt.Rows.Add();
                        int i = 0;
                        foreach (TableCell cell in row.Descendants<TableCell>())
                        {
                            dt.Rows[dt.Rows.Count - 1][i] = cell.InnerText;
                            i++;
                        }
                    }
                }

                // To display the result
                // Bind datatable(temporary table) to the datagridview
                dgvTable.DataSource = dt;
            }
        }
    }
}

Output

 

 

In the above example, I have used .First() extension method to get the first table from word document. You can use other extension methods to find exact table or you can use for/foreach loop to find the exact table from the word document.

 

Summary

 

In this session, I discussed how to read the table from the word document using c#. I hope the above session will help you to read the table from the word document using C#.