Seting a variable to choices on a list that has a keyword

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

is ther e any way that a variable can be set to the choices of a list variable which have a keyword in them??

#2

could you give an example, the situation this would be used for?
SC

#3

I’m trying to make an application that has a “database” of Terminal
commands, and you “search” the database w/ a dialog and the new variable
is set to the commands in the database that have the keywords searched
in them. this is what I thought i could use but the syntax is wrong

set theDatabase to {"pico", "vi", "emacs", "cal", "dc", "talk"}
display dialog "Type your search." default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", 
"Search"} default button "Search"
 set theSearch to text returned of the result
set theResult to items of theList that contain text  theSearch
choose from list theResult

help…?

#4 
set theDatabase to {"pico", "vi", "emacs", "cal", "dc", "talk"}             --your data
display dialog "Type your search." default answer "" buttons {"Cancel", 
"Search"} default button "Search"                                           --typed in string
 set theSearch to text returned of the result                --set item of the data to thesearch
set theResult to items of theList that contain text  theSearch     --theResult is undefined 
choose from list theResult                                             --trying to get item from the list?

Its seems like your trying to pick an item in the list and have it be a variable? I think this is what you need:


set dataBase to {"pico", "vi", "emacs", "cal", "dc", "talk"}
choose from list dataBase with prompt "Choose option"
set yourVariable to result as text --returns the choice as a variable

Open the “show result” window when you run this, so you see the button name returned with visual confirmation.
SC

#5

i guess ill use that for now, but is there a way to do that, because with a lot of commands it would be very hard to choose

#6

Hi,

You cannot use filters with lists. You need to loop through the list and get the items that match the criteria (contains key). Something like this:

set com_list to {“ahib”, “chid”, “ebyef”, “ghih”}
set k to “hi”
set key_coms to {}
repeat with c in com_list
if c contains k then
set end of key_coms to (contents of c)
end if
end repeat
if key_coms is {} then return
return key_coms

If you have a lot of commands, then you can probably speed it up by referencing the list.

gl,