Remove Empty Word Paragraphs in Java

If a Word document has 300 pages with hundreds of empty paragraphs, it is time-consuming to manually remove all empty paragraphs one by one. This article will show you how to programmatically remove empty paragraphs in a Word document using Java codes.

DEPENDENCY

First of all, you need to download the package of a free third-party library called Free Spire.Doc for Java from this link, find Spire.Doc.jar in the lib folder, and then add it to your Java program. If you use Maven, just type the following codes in the pom.xml file and click the button “Import Changes”.

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.e-iceblue</id>
<name>e-iceblue</name>
<url>https://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
<artifactId>spire.doc.free</artifactId>
<version>5.2.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

USING THE CODE

Free Spire.Doc for Java supports removing the empty paragraphs in a Word document using ParagraphCollection.remove() method. The following are detailed steps.

l  Create a Document instance.

l  Load a Word sample document using Document.loadFromFile() method.

l  Traverse every section in the document and get sections using Document.getSections().get() method.

l  Traverse every object in the sections and get the types of objects using DocumentObject.getDocumentObjectType() method.

l  Traverse every paragraph and get paragraphs using Section.getParagraphs().get() method.

l  Determine whether the object types are paragraph and the content of paragraphs are blank or not, if the content is empty, remove it using ParagraphCollection.remove() method.

l  Save the output document to another file using Document.saveToFile() method.

import com.spire.doc.*;
import com.spire.doc.documents.*;

public class removeBlankLines {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Create a Document instance
        Document doc = new Document();

        //Load a Word sample document
        doc.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Tina\\Desktop\\sample.docx");

        //Traverse every section in the document
        for(int i = 0; i < doc.getSections().getCount();i++)
        {
            //Get sections
            Section section = doc.getSections().get(i);

            //Traverse objects in the sections
            for (int j = 0;j < section.getBody().getChildObjects().getCount();j++)
            {
                //Get the types of objects
                Object object = section.getBody().getChildObjects().get(j).getDocumentObjectType();

                //Traverse evert paragraph
                for(int z = 0 ; z < section.getParagraphs().getCount();z++)
                {
                    //Get paragraphs
                    Paragraph paragraph = section.getParagraphs().get(z);

                    //Decide whether the object types are paragraphs or not
                    if(object.equals(DocumentObjectType.Paragraph))
                    {
                        //Determine whether the content of paragraphs are blank
                        if(paragraph.getChildObjects().getLastItem() == null)
                        {
                            //Delete blank paragraphs
                            section.getBody().getParagraphs().remove(paragraph);
                            z--;
                        }
                    }
                }

            }
        }

        //Save the output  document
        doc.saveToFile("output/DeleteBlankParas.docx",FileFormat.Docx_2013);
        doc.dispose();
    }
}