Alphabetizing a list

iceman · July 4, 2004, 9:53am

I’m trying to add a subroutine to a script of mine that will alphabetize a list of words. The list is defined as a variable defined from the clipboard.

I thought about using the shell command “fmt -1 myfilename | sort” but that would require a lot of extra scripting to get the clipboard into a text file. This wouldn’t work properly anyway because it took each word separately and did not preserve the line breaks.

At the moment what I do is paste the list of words into appleworks and sort the spreadsheet alphabetically.

If anyone can help me out here, it’d much greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Dennis_Cox · July 5, 2004, 12:02pm

iceman,
have you looked into pbpaste and pbcopy? They are the command line tools for copying and pasting to the clipboard. Pipelining the commands with sort will put the sorted variable on the clipboard:

do shell script "pbpaste | sort | pbcopy"
set sortedVariable to the clipboard

Look up pbpaste and pbcopy on macosxhints for more examples.

jonn8 · July 5, 2004, 4:37pm

Here’s a sort routine you can use inside your script if you’ve already got a list:

Jon

[This script was automatically tagged for color coded syntax by Convert Script to Markup Code]

iceman · July 8, 2004, 12:04pm

Thanks a lot for the replies, they’ve been helpful. This is not a difficult script I’m trying to write, but I just can’t figure this one out. Usually after a couple of hours I get it, but not this one.

Here is the script, it doesn’t need much modification.

global SelectedText, TheList, SortedList, OriginalChar, ReplaceChar

set SelectedText to the clipboard

set the clipboard to «class ktxt» of ((the clipboard as text) as record)

copy change_case_of(SelectedText, “lower”) to the SelectedText

set TheList to SelectedText as list

copy sort_list(TheList) to SortedList

set the clipboard to SortedList as string

– Subroutines

on change_case_of(this_text, this_case)
if this_case is “lower” then
set the_comparison_string to “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ”
set the_source_string to “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz”
else
set the_comparison_string to “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz”
set the_source_string to “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ”
end if
set the_new_text to “”
repeat with thisChar in this_text
set x to the offset of thisChar in the_comparison_string
if x is not 0 then
set the_new_text to (the_new_text & character x of the_source_string) as string
else
set the_new_text to (the_new_text & thisChar) as string
end if
end repeat
return the_new_text
end change_case_of

on sort_list(TheList)
set nl to (ASCII character 10)
tell (a reference to my text item delimiters)
set {old_delim, contents} to {contents, nl}
set {TheList, contents} to {“” & TheList, old_delim}
end tell
return paragraphs of (do shell script “echo " & (quoted form of TheList) & " | sort”)
end sort_list

I added this in as alternative code to make a list out of the string, I took it out though.

Essentially all I want to do is for the script to get this string from the clipboard:

Steve Hackett - Voyage Of The Acolyte
Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
Camel - Harbor Of Tears
Rush - Hemispheres
Yes - Relayer
King Crimson - In The Wake Of Poseidon

And turn it into this:

camel - harbor of tears
king crimson - in the wake of poseidon
mike oldfield - ommadawn
rush - hemispheres
steve hackett - voyage of the acolyte
yes - relayer

The formatting of the text is also removed with the «class ktxt» line.

If anyone reading this is interested in a script to help tag mp3s by looking up discographies let me know.

jonn8 · July 8, 2004, 1:00pm

This script will take the contents of the clipboard, convert it to lowercase, sort it, and put it back on the clipboard:

–Open this script in a new Script Editor window.

set the_list to paragraphs of my convert_to_lower(get the clipboard)
set the_list to my [color=green]sort_list/color
tell (a reference to my text item delimiters)
set {old_delim, contents} to {contents, return}
set {the_list, contents} to {“” & the_list, old_delim}
end tell
set the clipboard to the_list

on [color=green]sort_list/color
set NL to (ASCII character 10)
tell (a reference to my text item delimiters)
set {old_delim, contents} to {contents, NL}
set {the_list, contents} to {“” & the_list, old_delim}
end tell
return paragraphs of (do shell script “echo " & (quoted form of the_list) & " | sort”)
end sort_list

on [color=green]convert_to_lower/color
return do shell script “echo " & quoted form of the_string & " | tr [:upper:] [:lower:]”
end convert_to_lower

Jon

[This script was automatically tagged for color coded syntax by Convert Script to Markup Code]

iceman · July 11, 2004, 8:59am

Thank you so much for that script, you’re a very good scripter!

If you need a favour just send me an email.

Jimmy_Mac · July 15, 2004, 4:25am

Dear LORD! why is there no alphabetizing command? :evil:

mgh · July 19, 2004, 10:46pm

There is no alphabetizing command because applescript isn’t meant to be a substitute for php or pearl or java or… It originated as a language to tie applications together. If you want a list alphabetized, tell BBEdit or Word to read the list, then tell BBEdit or Word to alphabetize the list. Applescript shouldn’t have to duplicate a function available in dozens of scriptable programs.

Jimmy_Mac · July 20, 2004, 12:27am

I appreciate that perspective. But, with the advent of applescript studio, many of us have started using applescript as a programming language for small apps which require a short development period.

In any case, I addressed the problem with the unix sort function.

Thanks,
James :twisted:

AdmiralNovia · July 20, 2004, 1:33am

Um… er… OK, but let’s look at it this way: Why is AppleScript the only modern scripting language on planet Earth that doesn’t have a sort command, or a find-the-index-of-a-value-in-a-list command, or etc…?

The “origins” of AppleScript aren’t significant when compared to the wants and needs of the people who use the language today. If I’m writing a simple little script to add some bit of functionality to Mail or Safari or whatever, it feels pretty hackish to launch BBEdit, open a new window, insert text, sort the text, and then quit BBEdit.

Incidentally, there are many available ways to perform sorting in AppleScript, many of which predate the availability of “do shell script”.

http://applemods.macscripter.net/getMod.php?script_ID=43
http://applemods.macscripter.net/getMod.php?script_ID=33

qsort(), in 2-parts:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0401&L=macscrpt&D=1&H=0&I=-3&O=D&T=0&P=43527
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0401&L=macscrpt&D=1&H=0&I=-3&O=D&T=0&P=43418

In addition to the above links, there are 2 sorting handlers to be found in the “class” scripts of Smile, and over at AppleMods.sourceforge.net, there is a List library with several excellent sorting handlers as well.