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• • May 17, 2013 at 8:27 am #53571
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hello,
    I need to underline every digit positioned before the first column in a paragraph.

    Example:
    The number 10 in this intro translates to: 826.

    10 has to be underlined 826 not.

    How is this possible with GREP Styles?

    Thanks

  • May 17, 2013 at 10:09 am #53575
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Not sure what you mean by “before the first column”
    You might be able to do this easily with nested styles… such as “no style up to the first digit” then your underline style up to a space. Would that work?

  • May 17, 2013 at 10:18 am #53576
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I meant “up to the first column (:)”
    Each digit from the beginning of a paragraph up to the first column character has to be underlined.

    All digits written before the first column character have to be underlined in the following examples.

    This 12 is 34 the 567 first: example 1234599
    Here is 0987 another 111: example 0192836

  • May 17, 2013 at 11:59 am #53577
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I think the word you are looking for is colon. A column is “one of two or more vertical sections of a printed page separated by a rule or blank space”. Since that is also a design word, that’s probably why David was confused.

    \d+(?=.*:)

    This should find everything leading up to a colon, but be aware that if there are more than one colon per line, it will include all the numbers that precede the final colon.

  • May 17, 2013 at 12:27 pm #53578
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks jessereko.

    Oops, yes of course, colon (probably reminded me a little too much of our body part).

    I am using ^(.+?): to get all characters bold up to and including the first colon,

    but \d+(?=.*:) does not stop at the first colon. Like you pointed out, every digit in the paragraph gets underlined up to the final colon.

  • May 17, 2013 at 2:45 pm #53579
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    If you could figure out a character that would stop the search, for example if there is a period at the end of every sentence, such as:

    The number 10 in this intro translates to: 826. This 12 is 34 the 567 first: example 1234599. Here is 0987 another 111: example 0192836.

    \d+(?=[^.]*:)

    This will find any digits followed by any string of characters that isn’t a period, then a colon. or if you could find a similar character that interrupts the pattern you could substitute that for the . in the square brackets.

  • May 18, 2013 at 2:35 am #53583
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Yes, that is much better!

    The period is a good marker, but could pose a problem in case that the first period is in front of the first colon.
    Example:
    Here we have 2345 digits, i.e. 10 times more than: 23 pieces of cake.

    What is the reason that makes it so hard to stop the search at the first colon?

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