Operation Manual

128
Tex t
Last updated 6/15/2014
Phone numbers in the United States can appear in a variety of formats, such as 206-555-3982, [phone],
206.555.3982, and 206 555 3982. This string looks for any of these variations. The first three digits (\d\d\d) of the phone
number may or may not be enclosed in parentheses, so a question mark appears after the parentheses: \(? and \)?. Note
that the backslash \ indicates that the actual parenthesis is being searched for and that it’s not part of a subexpression.
The brackets [ ] locate any character within them, so in this case, [-. ] finds either a hyphen, a period, or a space. The
question mark after the brackets indicate that the items within it are optional in the search. Finally, the digits are
enclosed in parentheses, which signify groupings that can be referred to in the Change To field.
You can edit the grouping references in the Change To field to suit your needs. For example, you could use these
expressions:
206.555.3982 = $1.$2.$3
206-555-3982 = $1-$2-$3
[phone] = ($1) $2-$3
206 555 3982 = $1 $2 $3
Additional GREP examples
Experiment with the examples in this table to learn more about GREP searches.
Expression Search string Sample text Matches (in bold)
Class of characters
[ ]
[abc]
Finds the letter a, b, or c.
Maria cuenta bien. Mariacuentabien.
Beginning of paragraph
^
^~_.+
This searches the beginning of the
paragraph (^) for an em dash (~_)
followed by any character ( . ) one
or more times (+).
“We saw—or at least we think we
saw—a purple cow.”
—Konrad Yoes
“We saw—or at least we think we
saw—a purple cow.”
—Konrad Yoes
Negative lookahead
(?!pattern)
InDesign (?!CS.*?)
The negative lookahead matches
the search string only if it is not
followed by the specified pattern.
InDesign, InDesign 2.0, InDesign
CS, and InDesign CS2
InDesign, InDesign 2.0, InDesign
CS, and InDesign CS2
Positive lookahead
(?=pattern)
InDesign (?=CS.*?)
The positive lookahead matches
the search string only if it is
followed by the specified pattern.
Use similar patterns for negative
lookbehinds (?<!pattern) and
positive lookbehinds
(?<=pattern).
InDesign, InDesign 2.0, InDesign
CS, and InDesign CS2
InDesign, InDesign 2.0, InDesign
CS, and InDesign CS2
Groupings
( )
(quick) (brown) (fox) The quick brown fox jumps up
and down.
The quick brown fox jumps up
and down.
All found text = quick brown fox;
Found Text 1= quick; Found Text 2
= brown; Found Text 3= fox
Non-marking parentheses
(?:expression)
(quick) ($:brown) (fox) The quick brown fox jumps up
and down.
The quick brown fox jumps up
and down.
All found text = quick brown fox;
Found Text 1= quick; Found Text 2
= fox