Using grep to finding long digit series and inserting thin spaces into them

Question

On my page i have a table with over 500 rows, in it one column where all cells contain a different numbers, such as 55123, 666000, 3000 and 1459000 (figures for sums of money). I would need to insert thin spaces in the numbers for them to be easier to read, according to the following scheme:

Seven digits in a row is changed to: d ddd ddd (eg 1 459 000, d=digit)

six to: ddd ddd (eg. 666 000)

five to: dd ddd (eg. 55 123)

Four to: d ddd (eg. 3000)

using find/change I am able to find all instances of for example 7 digits in a row with the grep line \d{7} but i am lost at having a command for how to "change" using the found numbers and adding a thin space at the right positions.

Is there a way of writing a script or a find/change query for this operation for doing this anywhere in the text (or just the table)? Any tips on this are much appreciated!

Answer 1

There is a bug in the matching engine (at least in my indesign) we will fix this first.

• Find:

  (.)\Z

• Replace

  $1:

• Replace All

Ok now we have a anchor at the end of story. Now for the magic:

• Find:

  (\d)(?=(\d\d\d)+(:|\s))

  Explanation match any digit followed by any number triplet of digits and : or any whitespace

• Replace

  $1~<

  Number and thin space

• Replace All

And now let us fix end marker back:

• Find:

  :\d

• Replace

  leave empty

• Replace All

Done.

PS: you can try if (\d)(?=(\d\d\d)+\Z) works, it does not work on my machine.