Format Text as a Percentage

[Kathy5FFA]

Hello. Is there a way to create a style or a grep that will automatically convert text to a percentage format? So for example if I type "25.5" into a text box, it automatically adds a "%" at the end to make it "25.5%"? Similar to how it works in cell formatting in Excel? I have a file that includes a lot of numbers that need to be typed in so not having to type the % character or paste it in every time would save me some time. Thank you.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

I imagine there will be numbers that are not suppose to be formatted as a percentage. If this is the case, is there anything that distinguishes a percent number from a non-percent number?

[Kathy5FFA]

It would be an entire table column or row so I'd like to create a paragraph or character style that when applied to any number, it would convert it to a percentage. That way I can set all numbers in a particular row to be percentages.

[jmlevy · Accepted solution]

GREP styles (and character styles generally speaking) do not add any character, they format the text so it won't be possible that way. But you could run a find-change to add a percentage sign after all the numbers formatted in a defined style.

[Kathy5FFA]

That could work, thank you. Also is there a way to format a table cell to convert a number to a specific format like converting 1200 to 1,200 or 100 to 100.00 like in Excel? Just trying to save time from typing commas, decimals, etc. 

[jmlevy]

No, InDesign tables can't be compared to Excel tables in this matter. But once again, a find-change query could do what you want to get.

[Kathy5FFA]

Yes, I could add a ".00" to the end of all numbers in a style. Thank you.
Do you know how I would do a find change to add a comma in all long numbers like converting 1234 to 1,234 and 10234 to 10,234? It would need to apply to all numbers of a certain length I guess. I know that's asking a lot, but I figured I'd ask just in case.

[jmlevy]

How many digits are there in your numbers?

This query works with 4 to 6 digits like 1234, 10234, 100234

[Kathy5FFA]

This is amazing. It worked. Thank you very much! Would there happen to be a grep resource available somewhere that can be kind of an index of different grep values you can use?

[jmlevy]

Would there happen to be a grep resource available somewhere that can be kind of an index of different grep values you can use?

@Peter Kahrel which is very active on this forum wrote one book (maybe more than one) about GREP.

[Kathy5FFA]

Thank you so much. I will purchase it. This thread has been super-helpful. Appreciate it.

[Eugene Tyson]

I'd start with 2 greps

Find

\d\K\d{3}$

Change to 
,$0

2nd grep

\d\K\d{3}(?=,)

Change to 

,$0

Since it's the same change you can run them both at the same time

\d\K\d{3}$|\d\K\d{3}(?=,)

Change to 

,$0

But you have to do multiple find/changes the larger the number gets

1

10

100

1000

10000

100000

1000000

10000000

1000000000

10000000000

have to do multiple find/changes until they all are changed

1

10

100

1,000

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

10,000,000

1,000,000,000

10,000,000,000

-----------
This script seems to do the trick for the commas

Haven't fully tested and if you need it to do more please ask

// InDesign Script: Add commas to numbers

// Ensure an active document is open
if (app.documents.length === 0) {
    alert("No document is open!");
} else {
    var doc = app.activeDocument;

    // Clear previous GREP search settings
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;

    // Set up GREP to find sequences of digits
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\\d+";

    // Find all matches in the document
    var foundNumbers = doc.findGrep();

    // Function to add commas
    function addCommas(numStr) {
        // Regular expression to insert commas
        return numStr.replace(/\B(?=(\d{3})+(?!\d))/g, ",");
    }

    // Process each found number
    for (var i = 0; i < foundNumbers.length; i++) {
        var found = foundNumbers[i];
        // Get the current number string
        var original = found.contents;
        // Apply formatting only if it doesn't already contain commas
        if (original.indexOf(",") === -1) {
            var formatted = addCommas(original);
            // Replace the text with the formatted version
            found.contents = formatted;
        }
    }

    // Clear GREP preferences after processing
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;

    alert("Finished formatting numbers!");
}

@jmlevy beat me to it - but hopefully it helps still