Infinite loops occurring in find and replace functions in word macro

Thefirstfish` · #1 04-06-2017, 04:20 AM

Dear Word VBA Forum,

I am having a recurring problem with infinite loops in a macro containing multiple find and replace functions. Each function is written as follows:

Code:

Set oRng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With oRng.Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Text = "Trizol"
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindStop
    .Format = False
    .MatchWholeWord = True
    .MatchCase = False
    .Execute
  End With
  Do While oRng.Find.Found = True
    oRng.Text = "TRIzol®"
    oRng.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
    oRng.Find.Execute
  Loop

The loops happen if even one instance of the target text is found - but only in about 50% of documents, while in the other documents the code works perfectly.

I'm not sure what the difference between the 'problem' and 'non-problem' documents is. I tried removing all fields and turning track changes off in one of the problem documents, which did not prevent the infinite loops.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Thank you

macropod · #2 04-06-2017, 04:28 AM

There doesn't appear to be anything 'wrong' with your code, but I can't see any point to the loop, either - you could do the same with:

Code:

With ActiveDocument.Range.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Text = "Trizol"
  .Replacement.Text = "TRIzol®"
  .Forward = True
  .Format = False
  .MatchCase = False
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchWholeWord = True
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With

Thefirstfish` · #3 04-06-2017, 10:06 AM

Thanks Macropod! Your code fixed the infinite loop issue for that function and similar ones. The macro seems to run faster too.

However, I'm not sure how to convert other infinite-loop-prone functions that only replace parts of strings to your suggested format. For example:

Code:

 With oRng.Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Text = "[0-9]%-[0-9]"
    .Replacement.Text = ""
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindStop
    .Format = False
    .MatchWildcards = True
    .MatchWholeWord = False
    .Execute
  End With
  Do While oRng.Find.Found = True
    oRng.Characters(2).Text = ""
    oRng.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
    oRng.Find.Execute
  Loop

Is there a simple way to do that? Many thanks.

macropod · #4 04-06-2017, 03:13 PM

That's as simple as:

Code:

With ActiveDocument.Range.Find
  .ClearFormatting
  .Replacement.ClearFormatting
  .Text = "([0-9])%(-[0-9])"
  .Replacement.Text = "\1\2"
  .Forward = True
  .Format = False
  .Wrap = wdFindContinue
  .MatchWildCards = True
  .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With

Thefirstfish` · #5 04-06-2017, 05:33 PM

Thanks so much. The code you posted and some minor tweaks have solved most of the issues I've been having.

For some reason, having tracked changes on makes the above code behave oddly in some situations (e.g., one function changes "1+1" to "1 + 1" with tracked changes off, but with tracked changes on the output is "11+ ").

However, I can work around that by running the macro with tracked changes off then comparing documents to add the tracking.

The only thing I still can't automate is to remove the percentage sign in text such as "20%-40% when an en dash is used instead of a hyphen. However, I have about 150 functions in the macro so having only one misbehaving isn't bad.

macropod · #6 04-06-2017, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thefirstfish`

For some reason, having tracked changes on makes the above code behave oddly in some situations (e.g., one function changes "1+1" to "1 + 1" with tracked changes off, but with tracked changes on the output is "11+ ").

Yes, that's a known 'Track Changes' behaviour. You could have the macro toggle & restore the 'Track Changes' state.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thefirstfish`

The only thing I still can't automate is to remove the percentage sign in text such as "20%-40% when an en dash is used instead of a hyphen. However, I have about 150 functions in the macro so having only one misbehaving isn't bad.

That's easily resolved by changing
.Text = "([0-9])%(-[0-9])"
to:
.Text = "([0-9])%(?[0-9])"

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