macOS Help to process text using Applescript

[MMichal]

Hi, I am really new to Applescript so I am looking for someone to help me

Text:

07 Street
Place: 528|452
Points: 10.000
Name: bomberman

I want to process it using Applescript to get (and finally using it in Textexpander):

bomberman / 07 Street / 528|452

I hope you all understand what I want

 

[mysterytramp]

set blob to "07 Street
Place: 528|452
Points: 10.000
Name: bomberman"

set output to word 2 of paragraph 4 of blob & " / " & ¬
	paragraph 1 of blob & " / " & words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 2 of blob

This is close ... what's the big batch of data look like? Can you just break off four-paragraph blobs and process them?

mt

 

[MMichal]

Thanks that's exactly it working fine

this is how it looks for Textexpander

set blob to (the clipboard as string)

set output to word 2 of paragraph 4 of blob & " / " & ¬
	paragraph 1 of blob & " / " & words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 2 of blob

But one little question ... if the name was 2 words e.g. Super Mario how would you write the first part to select these 2 words from that line? Thanks

 

[mysterytramp]

set blob to "07 Street
Place: 528|452
Points: 10.000
Name: Super Mario Bros"

set output to ((characters 7 thru -1 of paragraph 4 of blob) as string) & " / " & paragraph 1 of blob & " / " & words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 2 of blob

The easy thing would be to say ... "set output to words 2 thru - 1 of paragraph 4 of blob ..."

The trouble is that AppleScript then returns a list and each word is an item in the list. If you coerce the first bit as a string, it returns "SuperMarioBros". So in this one we ask for characters, then coerce it as a string. As characters, the spaces aren't ignored, and it returns "Super Mario Bros"

What's curious is that "words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 4" turns the output into a list, but "words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 2" at the end doesn't affect the output. That may well be a "bug" in AppleScript, so watch this script as new versions of AS are released.

mt

 

[MMichal]

Yes as you said the easy thing isn't working .. I tried that with the same result as yours.
But it works fine with characters and string.
Thanks

 

[mysterytramp]

What's curious is that "words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 4" turns the output into a list, but "words 2 thru -1 of paragraph 2" at the end doesn't affect the output. That may well be a "bug" in AppleScript, so watch this script as new versions of AS are released.

[First, too weird to be quoting myself]

I hit the "Submit Reply" button, shut down the computer, climbed into bed and then realized that this probably IS NOT a bug, but in fact quite logical.

The reason, I believe, is that the first part of the variable is evaluated as a string, therefore the concatenations to the variable just make the string longer. The alternative evaluates as a list, therefore the concatenations just add items to the list. At least that's why I think there's a difference and why there's really no reason to worry about future AS versions. Time will tell.

mt