How to remove square brackets surrounding numbers with commas

BrianHoard · #1 10-03-2022, 03:02 PM

We have built a script to remove square brackets surrounding numbers, like [2] or [99999], then making the numbers formerly wrapped in square brackets to superscript.

But today, we found we also must remove square brackets from comma-separated numbers, like [2,3] or [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

I'm trying to do wildcards in find, like this, but this only works for patterns with a single comma.

In my .Find.Text attempt, here's what I'm trying to do...
- Find a literal open square bracket,
- followed by any number, 1 or more times,
- group start
- followed by a literal comma, 0 or one times,
- followed by any number 1 or more times
- group end
- the above group 0 or more times,
- ending with a close square bracket]

Code:

With ActiveDocument.Range
  With .Find
    .ClearFormatting
    .Replacement.ClearFormatting
    .Format = False
    .Forward = True
    .Wrap = wdFindStop
    .MatchWildcards = True
    .Text = "\[[0-9]{1,0}(\,[0-9]{1,0}){,}\]"
    .Replacement.Text = ""
  End With

  Do While .Find.Execute = True
    str_found = .Text
    str_found = Replace(str_found, "[", "") ' replace open [ bracket with nothing.
    str_found = Replace(str_found, "]", "") 'replace close ] bracket with nothing
    .Font.Superscript = str_found
    .Text = str_found ' Replace the text in doc, now without square [] brackets.
    .Collapse wdCollapseEnd
  Loop
End With

macropod · #2 10-03-2022, 03:13 PM

You don't need a macro for this - much less one with a loop. All you need is a wildcard Find/Replace, where:
Find = \[([0-9,]@)\]
Replace = \1
with the replacement font attribute set to superscript.

BrianHoard · #3 10-03-2022, 03:29 PM

Wow Macropod! You are amazing! This is working so far, so good. We're running it on our docs now.

BrianHoard · #4 10-03-2022, 03:45 PM

Find = \[([0-9,]@)\]
Replace = \1

If I'm understanding how you did this, character-by-character...
\[ ' literal open bracket
( ' beginning of a group?
[0-9] ' any single digit, 0-9,
1 or more times,
, ' Not sure how it knows to use the comma 0 or more times? But that's what it's doing.
) ' end group
@ look for the pattern [0-9], 1 or more times?
\] ' literal close bracket.

Replace = \1
What does this mean? It is removing the square brackets, but how does it know that?
I'm trying to understand how this all works as we may also want to allow for periods in the brackets, like [2,3.4]

Guessed · #5 10-03-2022, 06:32 PM

() are the beginning and ending of a group. Whatever was found inside that group is replicated in the ReplaceWith box by using \1.

Finding [0-9,] means the find will find any digit or comma. Including an @ after that means it also finds more than one character instances of that pattern. It is the same as including {1,} instead of the @

If you want to also include periods you just include that in the pattern
Find = \[([0-9.,]@)\]

BrianHoard · #6 10-03-2022, 07:55 PM

Thank you sir! I learn so much from you all. We were trying to figure this out for hours today.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Need Wild Card for Deleting Square Brackets with Differing Numbers inside	CrossReach	Word	6	11-26-2019 01:02 PM
What are the areas in square brackets [ ]?	mummy	Word	3	01-24-2018 05:15 AM
Bold numbers between square brackets	jeffreybrown	Word	4	02-13-2017 04:32 PM
Help with: Replace and reformat numbers inside square brackets	johnbrowny	Word	1	02-13-2016 06:45 PM
Gray square brackets	waldux	Word	8	09-25-2013 04:14 PM