Word.Range Search returns Range or RangeCollection online, but only RangeCollection on Desktop (PC and Mac)

[dweill]

Provide required information needed to triage your issue

When getting a document selection and performing a search

range.search('hello')

If there is only one instance of the search text in the document, Range.search returns a Range for the online version, but a RangeCollection for desktop. If there are multiple matches it correctly returns a RangeCollection, per the api documentation

Your Environment

• Platform [PC desktop, Mac, iOS, Office on the web]: Office on the web
• Host [Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.]: Word
• Office version number: latest
• Operating System: Mac
• Browser (if using Office on the web): Chrome

Expected behavior

I would expect that calling the Range.search method returns a RangeCollection both online and on desktop versions of the office js api.

Current behavior

Currently, in the online version of the office js api, Range.search returns a RangeCollection OR a Range (if there is only one match)

An improvement would be for it to always return a RangeCollection or note the different behavior on the web in the documentation

Steps to reproduce

1. Using office on the web (Word) perform a search on a range (Range.search) for text that appears only once in the document
2. await context.sync();
3. log the result.
4. see that it logs a Range, and not the expected RangeCollection

Link to live example(s)

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Provide additional details

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Context

Useful logs

• Console errors
• Screenshots
• Test file (if only happens on a particular file)

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[penglongzhaochina]

hi @dweill ,

Thank you for reporting the issue. I can't reproduce your case on word online. It all return rangeCollection no matter how many string hit. Like below picture. Could you please share more details about reproducing step or screen shot? Thanks.

[dweill]

Hmm strange, I can no longer reproduce it either. I originally noticed it because my code would error when invoking the getFirst method on the range search result, but that seems to be working now. Thank you for your prompt response and feedback.

[penglongzhaochina]

@dweill , no problem, I will close this issue since you can't reproduce it any more.