GREP replace quotation marks within quotation marks

Hi @giognis4789300, you already have a good answer, but I was intrigued by this problem and decided to write a script to solve it. Here is what I came up with:

/**
 * Example of "findChangeNestedBrackets" function:
 * Find and process bracketing in selected text
 * so that inner brackets (level 1 and above)
 * are changed from chevrons to quote marks.
 * Easily customizable via the `changer` function.
 * @author m1b
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/grep-replace-quotation-marks-within-quotation-marks/m-p/14223446
 */
function main() {

    /**
     * This is the function that decides what
     * to change, based on the char and level.
     * Customize this to suit your needs.
     * Important note: the closing level is 1
     * higher than the opening level, so that
     * level 1 opening matches with level 2 closing.
     * @param {String} ch - a single character.
     * @param {Number} level - the hierachical level of bracketing.
     * @param {String} changeTo - private variable, only here for convenience.
     */
    function changeNestedChevronsToQuotes(ch, level, changeTo) {

        // opening bracket
        if (ch == '«') {
            if (level == 1) changeTo = '“';
            else if (level == 2) changeTo = '‘';
            return [changeTo, true];
        }

        // closing bracket
        else if (ch == '»') {
            if (level == 2) changeTo = '”';
            else if (level == 3) changeTo = '’';
            return [changeTo, false];
        }

        // this is just for our peace-of-mind:
        if (level == 4) throw Error('We did not plan for level 4 nested brackets!');

    }

    findChangeNestedBrackets({
        text: app.activeDocument.selection[0],
        changer: changeNestedChevronsToQuotes,
        showResults: true,
        warnIfUnbalanced: true,
    });

};
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Find/Change Brackets');


/**
 * Perform find/change operation on characters used
 * as opening/closing bracketing, with reference
 * to their hierachical level.
 *
 * Example `changer` function:
 *
 *    function (ch, level, changeTo) {
 *       // opening bracket
 *       if (ch == '«') {
 *           if (level == 1) changeTo = '“';
 *           else if (level == 2) changeTo = '‘';
 *           return [changeTo, true];
 *       }
 *       // closing bracket
 *       else if (ch == '»') {
 *           if (level - 1 == 1) changeTo = '”';
 *           else if (level - 1 == 2) changeTo = '’';
 *           return [changeTo, false];
 *       }
 *       // this is just for our peace-of-mind:
 *       if (level == 3) throw Error('We did not plan for level 3 nested brackets!');
 *    };
 *
 * The `changer` function returns:
 * [changeToCharacter, risenToNewLevel],
 * which is used to
 *   (a) know if the character needs changing
 *       (undefined means no change), and
 *   (b) know when the level needs to change.
 *
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2023-11-10
 * @param {Object} options
 * @param {Text|TextFrame|Story} options.text - the text to find in.
 * @param {Function} options.changer - a function that returns a replacement char, if any, given `ch` {char} and `level` {Number}.
 * @param {Boolean} options.showResults - whether to show count of home many changes.
 */
function findChangeNestedBrackets(options) {

    options = options || {};

    var changer = options.changer,
        text = options.text;

    if (
        changer == undefined
        || typeof changer !== 'function'
    )
        throw Error('findNestedBrackets: bad `changer` function supplied.');

    if (
        text == undefined
        || !text.hasOwnProperty('characters')
    )
        return [];

    var contents = text.contents,
        change,
        counter = 0,
        level = 0;

    for (var i = 0; i < contents.length; i++) {

        if (change = changer(contents[i], level)) {

            if (change[0]) {
                // make the change
                text.characters[i].contents = change[0];
                counter++;
            }

            // adjust level depending on whether
            // change was opening or closing
            level += change[1] === true ? 1 : -1;

        }

    }

    // some messages for user:

    if (
        options.warnIfUnbalanced
        && level !== 0
    )
        alert(
            'Warning\nBackets found in target text were unbalanced by ' + level
            + (level == 1
                ? ' level. This usually means a bracket was opened but never closed.'
                : ' levels. This usually means ' + level + ' brackets were opened but never closed.'
            )
        );

    if (options.showResults)
        alert('Changed ' + counter + ' brackets.');

    return counter;

};

As I wrote in the script documentation, you can customize the changes by editing the "changeNestedChevronsToQuotes" function.

Currently it is configured so that a first level of chevrons does nothing (where level is 0), and the next level of nested chevrons are changed to double-quotes, and then next level of nested chevrons are changed to single-quotes.

- Mark

P.S. @Joel Cherney, my middle name is literally HappyToTakeAnHourToScriptATwoMinuteJob. 🙂 What's wrong with me!

This should help you a bit:

https://carijansen.com/positive-lookbehind-grep-for-designers/

But I'm not GREP guru and I'm on my phone.

@FRIdNGE or @Joel Cherney should be able to give you the correct expression on the spot.