Word Automation using C#: Create a Word Table Programatically

• Download source code

Introduction

Many times in real world scenario, we need to create our reports in Word file, need to export 'things' to Word file. In such cases, we need to create and write Word file programmatically and to accomplish the task COM winword interop library will play a role for you.

Using the Code

Our Aim: Create a Word file programmatically and create a table in it
Things we need: C#, Word interop object

Here are the code steps we follow to get to our destination:

1. Create a simple windows/web/WPF application (You may use console application or class library too, here I have used Windows application in C# with Visual studio 2010 and Microsoft Word 2007)
2. Now just right click on solution explorer, click on Add reference and select COM tab
3. Select Word com library (If you have Word 2007 installed, you will see 12.0 object library, if you have Word 2010 installed, you will see 14.0 object library and for Word 2013 you will see 16.0 object library)
   See the image below.

   

4. Add reference. Now in reference folder of solution explorer you will see 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.word' library added.
5. Now we are ready to code, first we need to create a new Word document using C#
6. Import Word namespace and create Word object
   See below snippet:

      Word._Application objApp;  
      Word._Document objDoc;  
      objApp = new Word.Application();  
      objApp.Visible = true;  
      objDoc = objApp.Documents.Add(ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing, ref oMissing);  

   With the help of the above code, we will be able to create a new Word file. (Note: Do not ever create new object of Word document.) .Visible property will open a new Word file.

7. Now to add a new table in Word document, we need to define bookmark first (which is the range of Word document from which we need to start writing the things)
   See below snippet to define default bookmark of Word document:

    object objMiss = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;  
    object objEndOfDocFlag = "\\endofdoc"; /* \endofdoc is a predefined bookmark */ 

8. Yes, we have successfully defined 'end of doc' flag, now we can first add some caption to table with the help of Paragraph object (Paragraph object is a object which is used to write some text in Word document)
   See the below snippet:

      Word.Paragraph objPara1; //define paragraph object  
      object oRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range; //go to end of the page  
      objPara1 = objDoc.Content.Paragraphs.Add(ref oRng); //add paragraph at end of document  
      objPara1.Range.Text = "Test Table Caption"; //add some text in paragraph  
      objPara1.Format.SpaceAfter = 10; //define some style  
      objPara1.Range.InsertParagraphAfter(); //insert paragraph 

   Here we have defined a paragraph and insert that paragraph to the end of the document.

9. Now we need to define rows and columns for table that we need to draw. Here I have drawn a table with 2 rows and 2 columns.
   In code, simply go to the end of the document and create 2X2 table, see the below snippet:

      Word.Table objTab1;  
      Word.Range objWordRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range;  
      objTab1 = objDoc.Tables.Add(objWordRng, 2, 2, ref objMiss, ref objMiss);  
      objTab1.Range.ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfter = 6;  
      int iRow, iCols;  
      string strText;  
      for (iRow = 1; iRow <= 2; iRow++)  
        for (iCols = 1; iCols <= 2; iCols++)  
            {  
              strText = "r" + iRow + "c" + iCols;  
              objTab1.Cell(iRow, iCols).Range.Text = strText;  
            }  
      objTab1.Rows[1].Range.Font.Bold = 1;  
      objTab1.Rows[1].Range.Font.Italic = 1;  

   Here, we have created a 'word.table' object and added some text with the help of Range object.

      //Add text after the table.  
      objWordRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range;  
      objWordRng.InsertParagraphAfter();  
      objWordRng.InsertAfter("THE END."); 

We are done with the task. Let's checkout the final code.

   object objMiss = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;  
   object objEndOfDocFlag = "\\endofdoc"; /* \endofdoc is a predefined bookmark */  
   //Start Word and create a new document.  
   Word._Application objApp;  
   Word._Document objDoc;  
   objApp = new Word.Application();  
   objApp.Visible = true;  
   objDoc = objApp.Documents.Add(ref objMiss, ref objMiss,  
   ref objMiss, ref objMiss);  
   //Insert a paragraph at the end of the document.  
   Word.Paragraph objPara2; //define paragraph object  
   object oRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range; //go to end of the page  
   objPara2 = objDoc.Content.Paragraphs.Add(ref oRng); //add paragraph at end of document  
   objPara2.Range.Text = "Test Table Caption"; //add some text in paragraph  
   objPara2.Format.SpaceAfter = 10; //define some style  
   objPara2.Range.InsertParagraphAfter(); //insert paragraph  
   //Insert a 2 x 2 table, (table with 2 row and 2 column)  
   Word.Table objTab1; //create table object  
   Word.Range objWordRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range; //go to end of document  
   objTab1 = objDoc.Tables.Add(objWordRng, 2, 2, ref objMiss, ref objMiss); //add table object in word document  
   objTab1.Range.ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfter = 6;  
   int iRow, iCols;  
   string strText;  
   for (iRow = 1; iRow <= 2; iRow++)  
      for (iCols = 1; iCols <= 2; iCols++)  
      {  
        strText = "row:" + iRow + "col:" + iCols;  
        objTab1.Cell(iRow, iCols).Range.Text = strText; //add some text to cell  
      }  
   objTab1.Rows[1].Range.Font.Bold = 1; //make first row of table BOLD  
   objTab1.Columns[1].Width = objApp.InchesToPoints(3); //increase first column width  
   //Add some text after table  
   objWordRng = objDoc.Bookmarks.get_Item(ref objEndOfDocFlag).Range;  
   objWordRng.InsertParagraphAfter(); //put enter in document  
   objWordRng.InsertAfter("THIS IS THE SIMPLE WORD DEMO : THANKS YOU.");  
   object szPath = "test.docx";  
   objDoc.SaveAs(ref szPath);  

Summing Up

So, we have seen with the help of a little bit of code, we can develop a nice Word table application.
If you want to download the source code, then you may do so from the link at the top of the post.

Finally

COM interop is not a single cup of tea, There are thousands of things we need to discuss, we can cover them one by one in later articles.

Suggestions and doubts are welcome.

Thank you for reading.