Grep Styles Help. Apply to style after last question mark only.

[Micah5C08]

I have a paragraph that asks several questions. After the last question I want the GREP style to apply to give the answer to the questions a different color to get this result.

"Where was it? When did it happen? At the market at 5:00 p.m."

This below works for finding the question mark, but the problem is that it finds every single one.

(?<=\?).+

Giving me this problem.

"Where was it? When did it happen? At the market at 5:00 p.m."

Is it possible to find only the last occorance of the question mark?

Thanks!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I'm replying from my phone so can't check right now: 

\?.+$

"$" represents end of paragraph. 

But it will also style "?" so you still need to play with those look ahead / behind. 

I hope it will at least get you on the right track. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Or maybe this will work? 

\?\K.+$

But InDesign's GREP is greedy - so you might still need to add extra "?" somewhere... 

As I've said, I'm on my phone so just brainstorming. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker · Accepted solution]

It's not a very "elegant" solution - and I'm pretty sure someone will find a better one - but maybe it be will good enough for you:

You can always add extra inclusions.

[Micah5C08]

Thank you! Seems very close. What do the brackets do?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Thank you! Seems very close. What do the brackets do?

By @Micah5C08

You're welcome. 

Square ones - "any character from the list". 

\w - any word character 

\d - any digit 

\s - any white space 

\. - "." 

\: - ":" 

[Micah5C08]

Ah perfect! Any new symbol I need in the colored answer part I can just add into the brackets! Amazing!

Thank you so much!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Ah perfect! Any new symbol I need in the colored answer part I can just add into the brackets! Amazing!

Thank you so much!

By @Micah5C08

Exactly 🙂

You're welcome. 

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Micah5C08

I've just sent you a private message - could you please check top-right corner of this website.

[Eugene Tyson]

(?<=\?(?!.*\?)).+?.+(?=")

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

(?<=\?(?!.*\?)).+?.+(?=")

Unfortunately, it doesn't work?

[Eugene Tyson · Accepted solution]

Works for me in 2025 and in 2023

Have to admit it didn't work when I copied it from the forum that's for sure. 

It did actually work - something didn't copy right first time - but it does work for me now - oddity with the forum maybe.

 

 

(?<=\?(?!.*\?)).+?.+(?=")

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I've typed it manually - not copy&pasted - unfortunately, still doesn't work:

[Eugene Tyson]

Don't know why you can't get it to work - it works. 

[Peter Kahrel · Accepted solution]

It's much more simple:

[^?]+$

 In other words, 'not-question mark to the end of the paragraph'.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

It's much more simple:

[^?]+$

 In other words, 'not-question mark to the end of the paragraph'.

By @Peter Kahrel

You are Genius 😄

I was playing with exclusion - but I was using "!" instead of  "^" 😞

[Eugene Tyson]

So this is odd @Peter Kahrel what have I done incorrectly?

edit it's catching the " at the end 

 

[Peter Kahrel · Accepted solution]

I hadn't spotted that the closing " should be excluded. Itt should be like this:

[^?]+(?="$)

which also fixes the problem of selecting lines that don't contain any question marks.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

I hadn't spotted that the closing " should be excluded. [...] 

By @Peter Kahrel

There are no closing - nor opening - ("). 

OP used them to show/mark quoted text. 

[Eugene Tyson]

We don't know that - it could be enclosed in quotes. 

That's the sample text provided - that's what I was using to find the text. 

[Eugene Tyson]

I guess why it's not working for us - using different sample text... 

I guess the OP has many ways and options now.

We all get a cookie.

[Eugene Tyson]

Ah yes - that's great - I might be overthinking it as usual - perhaps the quotes are not part of the search at all.

Thanks