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Fightergator
Fightergator
Inspiring
September 23, 2022
Question

Capture Replacement Group Doesn't Work in ExtendScript

  • September 23, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 363 views

I'm having a problem using capture replace groups in my Find/Change script.  For example, I'm fixing missing hyphenation in phrases.  I find "aim off points" using \b([Aa]im[ ]?off[ ]?point)([s]?) and replace it with aim-off point$2, which should give me "aim-off points" as my replacement. My find/replace works perfectly using FMs Find/Change panel (see below).  When I try it in my script I get this result:  aim off pointaim-off points$2. The $2 capture group searches for the plural of "points."  In my script tester I am using this to mimic the FM Find/Change panel:

FindReplace ("\\b([Aa]im[ ]?off[ ]?point)([s]?)", "aim-off point$2");  I've searched the blogs, reviewed K. Daube's Find/Change PDF, and tried various syntax combinations, without luck.  Any help much appreciated. 

 

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    1 reply

    K.Daube
    Community Expert
    K.DaubeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 26, 2022

    Fightengator, I would use another RegEx:

    Search:       \b(A|a)im off point

    Replace:     $1im-off point

    this works for me correctly both in FM Find/Change and in my own script FMfindRepl.

    IT depends on your general case how the RegEx should look then.

      Fightergator
      FightergatorAuthor
      Inspiring
      September 26, 2022

      Thanks K. Daube, I'll give that a try.  That's a good idea for using the first capture group to capture the case.  However, my real goal is to use a second capture group to capture the capture the word suffixes; i.e., "fine-tune, fine-tuning, fine-tunes, or fine-tuned and add it to the replacement.  When I use:

      Search: fine-tun([eing]{1,3}) //matches fine-tune and fine-tuning

      Replace: fine-tun$1

      I get "fine-tun$1" as the replacement.  I'm sure I'm doing something wrong with my search / replace strings, but haven't succeeded yet. 

      Fightergator
      FightergatorAuthor
      Inspiring
      October 1, 2022

      Was traveling all last week, so just now getting back to this issue.  I figured out why the replace script isn't appending the $2 capture group correctly.  I'm not using an actual FM ChangeToText function.  Instead I'd built a simple routine that inserted a replacement string at the end of the text that was found using doc.AddText.  Accordinly, it inserts my replacement text literally; "fin-tun$2".  I need a script to insert the replacement text using a function that mimics the FM ChangeToText dialogue.  If I'm unable to figure it out on my own, will start a new post to the forum.   

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