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Find text in a RichTextBox

This is a snippet I use to find specified text in a RichTextBox. I use it as a part of a Find And Replace system

Submitted By: PsychoCoder

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Rating:

Views: 1,162

Language: C#

Last Modified: August 31, 2008

Instructions: Pass the text you're looking for, whether to match case or not and the RichTextBox you're looking in.

Snippet

/// <summary>
/// method for searching for specified text in a RichTextBox
/// </summary>
/// <param name="text">text we're looking for</param>
/// <param name="matchCase">match case or not?</param>
/// <param name="rtb">RichTextBox we're searching for</param>
public static void Find(string text, bool matchCase, System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox rtb)
{
try
{
//variable to hold the start position (start of the found text)
int startPos;
//what kind of search are we doing
StringComparison type;
//determine if it's a match case search or not
type = matchCase == true ? StringComparison.Ordinal : StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase;
//look for the search text
startPos = rtb.Text.IndexOf(text, type);
//check the position
if (!(startPos > 0))
{
//text doesn't exist so let the user know
MessageBox.Show("Search text: '" + text + "' could not be found", "Text Not Found", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);
return;
}
else
{
//Yureka! Select the found text
rtb.Select(startPos, text.Length);
//scroll to the found text
rtb.ScrollToCaret();
//add focus so the highlighting shows up
rtb.Focus();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Search Error");
}
}

Copy & Paste

/// <summary>
/// method for searching for specified text in a RichTextBox
/// </summary>
/// <param name="text">text we're looking for</param>
/// <param name="matchCase">match case or not?</param>
/// <param name="rtb">RichTextBox we're searching for</param>
public static void Find(string text, bool matchCase, System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox rtb)
{
    try
    {
        //variable to hold the start position (start of the found text)
        int startPos;

//what kind of search are we doing
        StringComparison type;

//determine if it's a match case search or not
        type = matchCase == true ? StringComparison.Ordinal : StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase;

//look for the search text
        startPos = rtb.Text.IndexOf(text, type);

//check the position
        if (!(startPos > 0))
        {
            //text doesn't exist so let the user know
            MessageBox.Show("Search text: '" + text + "' could not be found", "Text Not Found", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);
            return;
        }
        else
        {
            //Yureka! Select the found text
            rtb.Select(startPos, text.Length);
            //scroll to the found text
            rtb.ScrollToCaret();
            //add focus so the highlighting shows up
            rtb.Focus();
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Search Error");
    }
}

Comments
wingot 2008-10-20 23:16:08
Thanks. Only had to change the method from static to normal and add a "nextStartPos" variable and this works perfectly in a find dialogue analogous to notepads (i.e., Each time you click "next" it finds the next occurence). I also modified the RichTextBox to a normal TextBox but both should be about the same.
vikramjit 2008-12-25 06:01:31
it do not search for the word if the word is at the first position