Is there a way to use applescript to convert a text file with a list like this…
BSmith
JDoe
TAnderson
… to this…
bsmith
jdoe
tanderson
Any ideas?
Searching the forum as well as Code Exchange, ScriptBuilders, or even Apple’s AppleScript site (in particular, see the Essential Sub-Routines), will result in many solutions for searching and replacing text as well as case transformation. That said, this works:
set the_string to "BSmith<space><space><space><space>
JDoe<space><space><space><space>
TAnderson<space><space><space><space>"
--this is for demo purposes, in your actual script, use:
--set the_string to read file "path:to:file"
set old_atid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set the_string to snr(the_string, "<space>", "")
atid(old_atid)
set the_string to change_case(the_string, "lower", true)
return the_string --you could write this back to the original file, a new file, or use it as is
on atid(the_delim)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the_delim
end atid
on snr(the_string, search_string, replace_string)
return my list_to_string((my string_to_list(the_string, search_string)), replace_string)
end snr
on string_to_list(the_string, the_delim)
my atid(the_delim)
set the_list to (every text item of the_string) as list
my atid("")
return the_list
end string_to_list
on list_to_string(the_list, the_delim)
my atid(the_delim)
set the_string to (every text item of the_list) as string
my atid("")
return the_string
end list_to_string
property letters_uc : (characters of "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ???")
property letters_lc : (characters of "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz???")
property letters_dia_uc : (characters of " ")
property letters_dia_lc : (characters of " ?")
property letters_nondia_uc : (characters of "AAAAAACEEEEIIIINOOOOOUUUUY")
property letters_nondia_lc : (characters of "aaaaaaceeeeiiiinooooouuuuy")
on change_case(the_string, convert_case, strip_diacriticals)
if strip_diacriticals = true then
set letters_dia_uc_replace to letters_nondia_uc
set letters_dia_lc_replace to letters_nondia_lc
else
set letters_dia_uc_replace to letters_dia_uc
set letters_dia_lc_replace to letters_dia_lc
end if
if convert_case = "lower" then
set search_chars to letters_uc & letters_dia_uc
set replace_chars to letters_lc & letters_dia_lc_replace
else
set search_chars to letters_lc & letters_dia_lc
set replace_chars to letters_uc & letters_dia_uc_replace
end if
set return_string to ""
repeat with i from 1 to (count of characters of the_string)
set string_char to (character i of the_string)
if search_chars contains string_char then
repeat with j from 1 to (count of search_chars)
if (item j of search_chars) = string_char then
set return_string to return_string & (item j of replace_chars)
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
else
set return_string to return_string & string_char
end if
end repeat
return return_string as string
end change_case
Jon