ID script : populate empty cells

[lemiran]

Hi there

I'm working with EasyCatalog. And i'm after a little script which could populate all my empty cells (dozens of tables in my ID document) with a "-".

I saw this threat : https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/assign-cell-style-to-empty-table-cells-clear-cell-style-over... which is quite similar

A little help would be very usefull because i just don't know how to script it 🙂

Thank you very much

Best regards

Miran

[brian_p_dts · Accepted solution]

var myDocument = app.documents.item(0); 

var allCells = myDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().cells.everyItem().getElements();

for ( var i = 0; i < allCells.length; i++)

{

    if ( allCells[i].contents === '')

    {

        allCells[i].contents = '-';

     }

}

[lemiran]

Hi brianp311

I thank you very much! That's it! It works like a charm

Is there a possibility to try the opposite thing : find columns with only "-" in it and delete them...

[brian_p_dts]

Sure. But even though you know nothing of scripting, take a look at the code and think about how you might reverse it... 

var myDocument = app.documents.item(0); 
var allCells = myDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().cells.everyItem().getElements();
for ( var i = 0; i < allCells.length; i++)
{
    if ( allCells[i].contents === '' )
    {
        allCells[i].contents = '-';
    }
    else if ( allCells[i].contents === '-' ) { 
        allCells[i].contents = '';
    }
}

[lemiran]

So i guess that the beginning is not so difficult :

var myDocument = app.documents.item(0); 
var allCells = myDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().cells.everyItem().getElements();
for ( var i = 0; i < allCells.length; i++)
{
    if ( allCells[i].contents === '-' )
    {

but after that how could i ask ID to delete every column which contains cells with only "-"

[brian_p_dts]

Oh I see, I thought you just wanted to convert cells with "-" to "" (the solution of which I posted). What you're after is a bit tougher. Try this, though you may run into issues if you have merged cells in your tables.

var myDocument = app.documents.item(0); 
var allCols = myDocument.stories.everyItem().tables.everyItem().columns.everyItem().getElements();
var allCells, isAllHyphens;
for ( var i = allCols.length-1; i >= 0; i--)
{
    isAllHyphens = true;
    allCells = allCols[i].cells.everyItem().getElements();
    for (var j = 0; j < allCells.length; j++) {
        if (allCells[j].contents !== "-") { 
            isAllHyphens = false; 
            break; 
        } 
    }
    if (isAllHyphens) { allCols[i].remove(); } 
}

[lemiran]

Goodmorning Brian p311

Oh thank you very much!

It works very well.