docx-recursive-text-replacement

name	docx_recursive_text_replacement
description	Replaces placeholders in a Word document across all sections, including headers, footers, body paragraphs, and deeply nested tables. It uses paragraph-level replacement to ensure placeholders split across multiple runs are correctly identified.

To ensure all placeholders (e.g., {{PLACEHOLDER}}) are replaced regardless of their location or document structure, follow this approach using python-docx:

1. Iterate all Sections: Loop through doc.sections to access header and footer.
2. Recursive Table Processing: Create a function that iterates through a table's rows and cells. For every cell, it must check cell.paragraphs and recursively call itself for any tables found in cell.tables.
3. Paragraph-Level Replacement: Instead of iterating through paragraph.runs, perform the replacement on paragraph.text. This avoids issues where Word splits a single placeholder into multiple XML "runs".
4. Complete Coverage: Apply the replacement logic to:
   • doc.paragraphs
   • doc.tables (using the recursive function)
   • section.header.paragraphs and section.header.tables
   • section.footer.paragraphs and section.footer.tables

Example logic:

def replace_in_paragraph(paragraph, data):
    for key, value in data.items():
        placeholder = f"{{{{{key}}}}}"
        if placeholder in paragraph.text:
            paragraph.text = paragraph.text.replace(placeholder, str(value))

def process_table(table, data):
    for row in table.rows:
        for cell in row.cells:
            for paragraph in cell.paragraphs:
                replace_in_paragraph(paragraph, data)
            for nested_table in cell.tables:
                process_table(nested_table, data)