Script Description

This InDesign script is meant to help you quickly update numbers in an InDesign document. It works by getting the operation you want to perform on numbers from a dialog box, and the searching for numbers that match either a default or custom regular expression. There are options to only find number that have a specific paragraph style applied or follow a specific prefix character.

Looking at the Script

The core part of this script is finding text that is actually a number. To do that it uses a regular expression: [-]*[0-9][0-9,.]*\b. With that expression the findWhat function is used to get all the matches.

//Find matching numbers
var mySearchGrep = app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = mySearchPrefix + myGrep; 
var myFoundArray = mySearchScope[i].findGrep(); 

Once matches to the regular expression have been found we can perform the operation on them. The result of the operation is stored in the variable “myResult”.

//Perform the selected operation on the found number
            if (myOperation == "+"){var myResult =  (parseFloat(myFoundNumber) + myOperator) + "";}
                else if (myOperation == "-"){var myResult =  (parseFloat(myFoundNumber) - myOperator) + "";}
                    else if (myOperation == "*"){var myResult =  (parseFloat(myFoundNumber) * myOperator) + "";}
                        else if (myOperation == "/"){var myResult =  (parseFloat(myFoundNumber) / myOperator) + "";}
                        

The script does call a few other functions to make it more useful. It provides options to round off the result, add a prefix character to the result, and search on a custom regular expression.

Finally, there is an option for counries who use a comma for a decimal point and a decimal point for a comma, i.e. “1.234,56”. Selecting this options effects the what is found and returned via the find/change funcitons. The operator field still needs to be formatted as “1,234.56” however.

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