Finding the first Empty Row in a Table

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

I have this method to find the first empty row in a table but for some reason when I called gettext for empty cells I get \a. I’m not sure why an empty cell would have \a in it.

public static int CheckIfRowIsEmpty(Table table)
{
    int firstEmptyRow = 0;
    for (int rowNumber = 0; rowNumber < table.Rows.Count; rowNumber++)
    {
        var columnTotal = table.Rows[rowNumber].Cells.Count;
        for (int cellNumber = 0; cellNumber < columnTotal; cellNumber++)
        {
            var dataElement = table.Rows[rowNumber].Cells[cellNumber].GetText();
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(dataElement))
            {
                continue;
            }
            if (cellNumber == columnTotal - 1)
            {
                return rowNumber;
            }
        }
    }
    return firstEmptyRow;
}
2

@tkurian

It seems that you are encountering an issue where empty cells in your table are returning a value of /a when you call the GetText() method. This behavior can occur due to the way Aspose.Words handles empty cells, particularly if they contain formatting or other elements that are not visible.

To address this issue, you can modify your method to check for the presence of any child nodes within the cell. If a cell contains only formatting or other non-visible elements, it may still be considered “not empty” by the GetText() method. Here’s an updated version of your method that checks for child nodes:

public static int CheckIfRowIsEmpty(Table table)
{
    int firstEmptyRow = 0;
    for (int rowNumber = 0; rowNumber < table.Rows.Count; rowNumber++)
    {
        var columnTotal = table.Rows[rowNumber].Cells.Count;
        bool isRowEmpty = true; // Assume the row is empty initially

        for (int cellNumber = 0; cellNumber < columnTotal; cellNumber++)
        {
            var cell = table.Rows[rowNumber].Cells[cellNumber];
            var dataElement = cell.GetText();

            // Check if the cell is empty or contains only whitespace
            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(dataElement) || cell.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Paragraph, true).Count > 0)
            {
                isRowEmpty = false; // Found non-empty cell
                break; // No need to check further cells in this row
            }
        }

        if (isRowEmpty)
        {
            return rowNumber; // Return the index of the first empty row
        }
    }
    return firstEmptyRow; // Return 0 if no empty row is found
}

In this updated method, we check if the cell contains any paragraphs (which would indicate that it has content) in addition to checking the text. This should help you accurately identify empty rows in your table.

If you continue to experience issues, consider checking the specific content of the cells to ensure there are no hidden elements causing the unexpected behavior.

3

@tkurian \a character is cell break character. You can try using code like the following to get text of the cell without break characters:

var dataElement = cell.ToString(SaveFormat.Text).Trim();