List of lists question

I have a procedure that ends up producing a list built out of items from a previously existing list. The results look like this:

{item 2 of {alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me again.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me at night 2.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me at night.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:spidey.jpg”}, item 3 of {alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me again.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me at night 2.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:me at night.jpg”, alias “Happy Wanderer X:Users:wanderer:Desktop:automator test images:spidey.jpg”}}

Is there any way that I can read the original list back out of this? The entire original list is there, but I can’t figure out how to get to it.

Thanks!

Can we see the procedure that produced this list?

Actually, it’s a list built by Automator. This is part of an Automator action that I’m working on. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but I thought that maybe this was just a general AppleScript List thing.

Without a precise context, it’s hard to say exactly how you should approach this, benlong. However, the normal method of dereferencing in AppleScript is to get a reference’s contents. Compare, for example, the result of this:

repeat with composer in {"Mozart", "Handel", "Beethoven", "Tippett"}
	if composer starts with "B" then return composer
end repeat

--> item 3 of {"Mozart", "Handel", "Beethoven", "Tippett"}

…with this:

repeat with composer in {"Mozart", "Handel", "Beethoven", "Tippett"}
	if composer starts with "B" then return composer's contents (* or: contents of composer *)
end repeat

--> "Beethoven"