GREP works in the InDesign UI but not in script

[jakec88782761]

Hi,

I've got a script that searches for content like this:

section 10.1

section 9

I put this content into a variable called matchContent.

I then do:

matchContent.match ( "(?<!\\d\\.)\\d+(?!\\d?\\.)" );

I only want to find the contents with the dot.

But this only works in the UI. In the script it never finds the digit.

Does anyone know why?

Thanks,

Jake

[jakec88782761]

I've just tried findGrep() as well which is even more weird.

app.findGrepPreferences=app.changeGrepPreferences=null;
    app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "(?<!\\d\\.)\\d+(?!\\d?\\.)";   
    var sectionNumber = match.findGrep(),

If I alert section number it gives me an [object Character] or [object Word].

However if I access a property on it, it's undefined...

[jakec88782761]

At this point match is an [object TextStyleRange]

[Loic.Aigon · Accepted solution]

HI jake,

I thought you were trying to use negative lookbehind/ahead in pure ExtendScript which I never get to work (is it an ExtendScript limitation ?) Let me rephrase, I mean using a regular expression on a pure string object.

Now I understand you want to do F/C through Scripting. Well, it seems like you have it all or close.

app.findGrepPreferences=app.changeGrepPreferences=null;

app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "(?<!\\d\\.)\\d+(?!\\d?\\.)";

should be ok for setting grep options.

Now finding text. You need to execute the findGrep on some text based object (or the doc or app objects). That could be a story, a paragraph, a word, etc.

var found = myStory.findGrep();

Which will return an array of results. Each array Item references the text object that matches the expression.

alert( found[0].contents ); //given that the result are not empty.

[jakec88782761]

Hi Loic,

Thank you for the great answer!

I've finally got it working

It probably needs a polish but if your interested I can post it here?