Is it possible to have multiple text item delimiters?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi,

Is it possible to have multiple text item delimiters? I thought it would be something like this:

set Applescript's text item delimiters to {":" , "_"}

…but I haven’t gotten that to work.

Thanks 8)

#2

Not possible, as far as I know. In your example, only the first item will be the delimiter. The second one will be ignored.

#3

Yup, that’s exactly what happens. Oh well, I thought there was a way, but I guess not.

Thanks again…
8)

#4

There is a way if you’re getting the text by reading a file. If you have a text path reference to the text file, you can use a line like the following:


set textAsArray to read file textFilePath using delimiter {tab, return}
#5

For multi-item delimiters, I use this routine:

set the_string to "This is a string: with_multiple delimiters."
set the_delims to {":", "_"}
my multi_atid_split(the_string, the_delims)

on multi_atid_split(the_string, the_delims)
	set {OLD_delim, temp_delim} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, "?|?"}
	repeat with this_delim in the_delims
		my atid(this_delim)
		set the_string to text items of the_string
		my atid(temp_delim)
		set the_string to text items of the_string as string
	end repeat
	my atid(temp_delim)
	set the_string to text items of the_string
	my atid(OLD_delim)
	return the_string
end multi_atid_split

on atid(the_delim)
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the_delim
end atid

Jon