Deleting tab separated column content

[tpk1982]

Hi,

I am trying to remove content of a particular column in a table. But it is not working if i used the set up like below. The highlighted texts are not removed (under product). Not sure why. Please help to sort out.

Tried coding:

var para=app.selection[0];
var myColumn=prompt("Enter column number to delete","");
if(myColumn){
var lines=para.contents.split('\r');
var no_of_lines = lines.length;
for(i = 1; i <= no_of_lines; i++)
{
var x = lines[i-1].split('\t');
app.findGrepPreferences = null;     
app.changeGrepPreferences = null; 
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat=x[myColumn-1];
app.changeGrepPreferences.changeTo  ="";
para.changeGrep();
app.findGrepPreferences = null;     
app.changeGrepPreferences = null; 
}
}

Thanks,

K

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

See:  Remove a Column in Tab Text …

(^/)

[tpk1982]

Thank you Obi.

But when i run the script it show object is invalid error in line 25

[Kai Rübsamen · Accepted solution]

If you use the grep-search, you must escpape '(' >> '\(', but since your findWhat is clear, you could also use the text search!

Try this one:

var curSel = app.selection[0];
var myColumn = prompt("Enter column number to delete","");
if (!myColumn) exit();
var allParas = curSel.paragraphs.everyItem().getElements();
app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;   
for (var i = allParas.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
    var curPara = allParas;
    var curParaContents = curPara.contents;
    var x = curParaContents.split("\t");
    app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = x[myColumn-1];
    app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo  ="";  
    curPara.changeText();    
}
app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;

[tpk1982]

Awesome.. thank you Kai

[tpk1982]

If i delete the last column, it deleted the return marks too.. may i know why?

[Kai Rübsamen]

You can test this in the estk with the console!

Choose first 5 and then 6. If the return is included, the Pipe-symbol is in the next line

var curParaContents = curPara.contents;
var x = curParaContents.split("\t");
var f = x[myColumn-1];
$.writeln(f + "  |");

[Kai Rübsamen]

You can solve this problem, by deleting the return from the 'findWhat' string, e.g.

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT , [], UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, "remove tab column");  
function main() {
if (!(app.selection.length == 1 && app.selection[0].hasOwnProperty("baseline"))) return;
var curSel = app.selection[0];
var myColumn = prompt("Enter column number to delete","");
if (!myColumn) return;
var allParas = curSel.paragraphs.everyItem().getElements();
app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;   
for (var i = allParas.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
  var curPara = allParas;
  var curParaContents = curPara.contents;
  var x = curParaContents.split("\t");
  var f = x[myColumn-1].replace("\r","");
  app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = f;
  app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo  ="";  
  curPara.changeText();
}
app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;
}

Notice also, that line 18 will throw an error, if you e.g. have 6 columns and enter in the prompt-dialog 7 or if you input is not an integer. So you should check this as well. 😉

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Kaï,

Cool! Nice code for me to be carefully studied // Thanks for my learning! 

The script only deletes the contents! 

Would be cool to have a variant that entirely removes the column [as I want in my script (that doesn't work (?) // The grep code is OK!].

(^/)

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Aha! Right! 

I've found the error and corrected in other topic! 

(^/)

[tpk1982]

HI Kai,

Sorry to reinitiate this thread. But found one small problem. It is working fine if i have all column and rows content. If some thins missing then it throws error.

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT , [], UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, "remove tab co lumn");          function main() {  
    if (!(app.selection.length == 1 && app.selection[0].hasOwnProperty("baseline"))) return;  
    var curSel = app.selection[0];  
    var myColumn = prompt("Enter column number to delete","");  
    if (!myColumn) return;  
      if (isNaN(myColumn)) {
          alert("Please enter Number only");
          return;  
    }
    var allParas = curSel.paragraphs.everyItem().getElements();  
    app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;     
    for (var i = 0; i <allParas.length; i++) {  
      var curPara = allParas;  
      var curParaContents = curPara.contents;  
      var x = curParaContents.split("\t");  
    if (myColumn>x.length){
          alert("Selected table contains only "+x.length+" columns"+". Enter only in between "+x.length);
          return;  
    }  
      var f = x[myColumn-1].replace("\r","");  
      app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = f;  
      app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo  ="";    
      curPara.changeText();  
    }  
alert("Column deleted successfully");
app.findTextPreferences = app.changeTextPreferences = null;  }

Is it possible how to ignore this?

Regards,

K

[Kai Rübsamen]

The problem is, that those columns are not really empty, because of you xml-dots. So the easiest way is, to use try/catch for the fc-operation:

try {
    app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = f;  
    app.changeTextPreferences.changeTo  ="";    
    curPara.changeText();
}
catch (e) {};

[tpk1982]