Add, Count, Retrieve and Remove Variables in Word using Java

In a Word document, a variable is seen as a container storing information which may change frequently and using variables in source documents allows you to quickly and easily control the content in generated documents. This article will demonstrate how to use Java codes to add a variable to Word, count the number of variables in Word, retrieve the name and value of variables and remove specified variables with the help of Free Spire.Doc for Java.

BEFORE CODES

Before running codes, we need to create a running environment by installing JDK 1.8.0 and Intellij IDEA. The next thing is adding a Jar file to IDEA and there are two methods to do it. One is getting the package of the library from the link, finding Spire.Xls.jar in the “lib” folder and then manually adding it to IDEA. The other is that create a Maven project in IDEA, type the following codes in the pom.xml file and finally click the button “Import Changes”.

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.e-iceblue</id>
<url>http://repo.e-iceblue.cn/repository/maven-public/</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
<artifactId>spire.doc.free</artifactId>
<version>3.9.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

RUNNING THE CODE
Add a Variable
The following code snippets add a document variable named "A1" with a value of 12 to a Word document.
import com.spire.doc.Document;
import com.spire.doc.FieldType;
import com.spire.doc.FileFormat;
import com.spire.doc.Section;
import com.spire.doc.documents.Paragraph;

public class AddVariables {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Create a Document instance
        Document document = new Document();
        //Add a section
        Section section = document.addSection();

        //Add a paragraph to the section
        Paragraph paragraph = section.addParagraph();

        //Add a DocVariable field to the paragraph
        paragraph.appendField("A1", FieldType.Field_Doc_Variable);

        //Add a document variable to the DocVariable field
        document.getVariables().add("A1", "12");

        //Update fields in the document
        document.isUpdateFields(true);

        //Save the resulting document
        document.saveToFile("output/AddVariables.docx", FileFormat.Docx_2013);
    }
}
Output

Count the number of Variables
import com.spire.doc.Document;
public class CountVariables {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Load a Word document
        Document document = new Document();
        document.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\AddVariables.docx");

        //Get the number of variables in the document
        int number = document.getVariables().getCount();

        StringBuilder content = new StringBuilder();
        content.append("The number of variables is: " + number);

        System.out.println(content.toString());
    }
}
Output

Retrieve Name and Value of a Variable
import com.spire.doc.Document;

public class RetrieveVariables {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
       //Load a Word document
        Document document = new Document();
        document.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\AddVariables.docx");

        //Retrieve the name of a variable by index
        String s1 = document.getVariables().getNameByIndex(0);

        //Retrieve the value of a variable by index
        String s2 = document.getVariables().getValueByIndex(0);

        //Retrieve the value of a variable by name
        String s3 = document.getVariables().get("A1");

        System.out.println("The name of the variable retrieved by index 0 is: " + s1);
        System.out.println("The value of the variable retrieved by index 0 is: " + s2);
        System.out.println("The value of the variable retrieved by name \"A1\" is: " + s3);
    }
}
Output

Remove a specific Variable
import com.spire.doc.Document;
import com.spire.doc.FileFormat;

public class RemoveVariables {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Load a Word document
        Document document = new Document();
        document.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\AddVariables.docx");

        //Remove a variable by name
        document.getVariables().remove("A1");

        //Update fields in the document
        document.isUpdateFields (true);

        //Save the result document
        document.saveToFile("output/RemoveVariables.docx", FileFormat.Docx_2013);
    }
}