Problem with GREP finding

Question

Hi Experts
I am trying to find text using GREP option:
<k6>
para 1
para 2
para 3
</k6>
using this grep function
app.findGrepPreferences = app.changeGrepPreferences = null;
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "(?s)<k6>\r(.+?\r)</k6>";
var myResults = app.activeDocument.findGrep();
while I am executing this script the end of paragraph marker "\r" automatically changed to SPACE( ) in the FIND/CHANGE dialogue box. If i change the space manually to \r in find/change dialogue box it works fine. Why executing from script this changes happen? Any one experienced this before.
Kindly suggest.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You mean the input appears to have changed to a space when you check what's in the Find box? That is normal behavior. Since you are using Javascript strings, codes such as "\t" and "\r" are *immediately* translated into their literal characters *before* being processed any further. So you don't write "\r" into the Find dialog, you are writing a literal hard return character. The Find/Change dialog cannot show that character on screen so it displays a space.
You say "if I change it to \r it works fine" -- do you mean that it does *not* work if you leave it that way? Because it should work just fine. (And you actually can have a little fun by inserting all kinds of 'special' characters literally into the Find dialog -- try tab or newline.)
But if it bothers you for cosmetic reasons, use "\\r" instead. The double backslash is also a special Javascript string escape and will be replaced (immediately) with a single backslash. Then the string that goes into the Find dialog is "\r", and that's what InDesign is going to translate back to a hard return when it's processing your find string.