GREP for endnote reference chains

By the way @James Gifford—NitroPress since you did tag scripting (haha do I need an excuse?! No I don't!) ...

Here is a scripting approach. Maybe you can adjust to suit, but this might cover most of your cases. See screen shot below.

- Mark

NOTE: the script currently uses the selection, so be careful—if you select a text frame, it will only find/change within the contents of that frame. If you want the whole story, select the whole story. If you want the whole document, change target to doc.

/**
 * @file Clean Up Endnote Symbols.js
 *
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2024-08-26
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/grep-for-endnote-reference-chains/m-p/14820927
 */
function main() {

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        endNoteStyle = doc.characterStyles.itemByName('REFS'),
        target = doc.selection[0],
        showResult = true,
        counter = 0;

    if (
        undefined == target
        || undefined == target.findGrep
    )
        return alert('Please select some text and try again.');

    app.findChangeGrepOptions.includeFootnotes = false;
    app.findGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.changeGrepPreferences = NothingEnum.NOTHING;
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = '~U';

    var found = target.findGrep();

    for (var i = found.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {

        var er = found[i],
            index = er.index,
            story = er.parentStory;

        while (
            story.characters[index + 1].isValid
            && story.characters[index + 2].isValid
            && ' ' === story.characters[index + 1].contents
            && ' ' === story.characters[index + 2].contents
        ) {
            // remove extra trailing space
            story.characters[index + 1].remove();
            counter++;
        }

        while (
            story.characters[index - 1].isValid
            && ' ' === story.characters[index - 1].contents
        ) {
            // remove leading space
            story.characters[--index].remove();
            counter++;
        }

        if (
            story.characters[index + 1].isValid
            && story.characters[index + 2].isValid
            && ',' === story.characters[index + 1].contents
            && SpecialCharacters.FOOTNOTE_SYMBOL === story.characters[index + 2].contents
        )
            // style comma when between endnote symbols
            story.characters[index + 1].appliedCharacterStyle = endNoteStyle;

    }

    if (showResult)
        alert('Removed ' + counter + ' unwanted characters.');

};

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Clean Up Endnote Symbols');

Hi @James Gifford—NitroPress, I wonder if you have run into a bug?

FindGrep ~U works fine:

But I get strange behaviour when I search for a character before the endnote ref, eg k~U:

Can anybody reproduce my test? If this is truly a bug, then it explains your difficulty!

- Mark

EDIT: I found something else:

k\x{0004}

This works, ie finds "k" and then the endnote symbol (unicode 0004). So I tried to do the normal grep via the UI but now I cannot do a capture group replacement with it. Using a lookahead, eg.

\s+(?=\x{0004})

 worked, and targeted only the offending space(s), but I couldn't remove them or replace them (the replacement just didn't happen, with no error). This behaviour might be part of the bug.

Find:

~U,~U

Change to:

(apply char style REFS)