Thank you for the script and the learnings.
It works great.
I guess from what you said…
…that it is not possible to extend the scope of a variable outside an handler
I also see that i was near your solution but that by trying to optimize it (not having to retype the variables names in the recover routine), i spent a lot of time without going nowhere
So i also learnt that lazyness is not always the best advisor !
Thanks again
It actually is possible to use variables outside the scope of handlers. Therefore you have to declare the variables global. There are two types of variables in general: global ones and local ones. You declare them like this:
local aLocal
global aGlobal
Variables are local by default, so you shouldn’t declare one as a local unless you declared it as a global first.
set v to 1 -- a local variable
global v
set v to 2 -- the global version of v
local v -- switch back to the local one
display dialog "Local v is " & v
--> 1
global v -- switch back to global
display dialog "Global v is " & v
--> 2
If you want to use the global variable, make sure you let AppleScript know you want to use the global one:
on run
global v
set v to 1
displayV()
--> 1
setV(3)
displayV()
--> 3
local v -- switch to local v
set v to 5
display dialog "Local v is " & v
--> 5
displayV()
--> 3
end run
on displayV()
global v
display dialog "Global v is " & v
end displayV
on setV(newV)
global v
set v to newV
end setV
I hope you get the concept of global variables at least a little bit know,
ief2
PS: I’ve written this post on my iPod so please excuse me for my bad spelling. It’s due to the fact that my first language isn’t English and the iPod doesn’t have a good spelling checker. Also excuse me for the bad AppleScript alignment. But since I’m on my iPod, there’'s now way to compile scripts and no easy way to insert a tab.
EDIT: I guess there’s something wrong with the copy/paste function of the iPod Touch. Line endings did not come through in this post. Click “Quote” to see full post. (Can someone explain why my post looks so weird?)
Either way, you still have to type as much.
That’s right. It’s much better to let your handlers return something than making a mess of local and global variables.
Thanks for your answer
However i am not sure i could use it to fulfill the initial request
Something like:
set variable1 to "Hello."
set variable2 to "How are you today?"
set list_of_variables to magic_function( {variable1, variable2,...}) -- where magic_function captures both the strings "variable1" and the content of variable1
save_environment(list_of_variables) --saves to disk
recover_environment() -- can reinitialise "variable1" to the saved content of the old variable1, which i guess is where i would need global variables
{variable1, variable2}
I would think to stick with my idea. Having globals means the script is not flexible, and you have to change it each time you put it into another script.
@Dylan
That’s precisely what i want to avoid by trying to code a reference to the name of the variable, but maybe it is not possible
Anyway, i did use your idea for my needs, so thanks again
In normal scripting files, it’s of course better to use a return value in your handlers. Globals are mostly used if there are other handlers than the on run (like on idle, on open theObjects, on quit).
A little demonstration:
global idleCount
on run
-- set up idleCount
-- else you'll get the error "the variable idleCount is not defined"
-- in the "on idle"-handler
set idleCount to 1
end run
on idle
set myBut to missing value
set myBut to button returned of (display dialog "This dialog has already been displayed for " & idleCount & " times" buttons {"Quit", "OK"} default button 2 giving up after 1)
-- Quit
if myBut is "Quit" then quit
-- increase idleCount via handler
-- is the same as
-- set idleCount to idleCount + 1
increaseIdleCount()
return 1
end idle
on increaseIdleCount()
set idleCount to idleCount + 1
end increaseIdleCount
Hope it helps,
ief2
hello ief2
Given a variable var_1,
set var_1 to "my precious data"
Would you know a way to achieve either:
1) a way to get the name of the variable
i.e
my_routine(var_1)
returns the string “var_1”
2) a way to address the content of a variable by its name as string
i.e
my_routine(“var_1”)
returns “my precious data”"
I looked into the AS guide, to no avail
As far as I know, it’s not possible to do such things. For the second one you could do something like:
getVarWithName("var")
on getVarWithName(aString)
set myScript to "get " & aString
return (run script myScript)
end getVarWithName
But then again, how would you pass the value of “var” to the script? I don’t know, and I don’t think any of us knows.
If your above script worked, i think i may have had a solution
But it seems it does not work, even if global
global MyVar
set MyVar to "test"
getVarWithName("MyVar")
on getVarWithName(aString)
set myScript to "get " & aString
return (run script myScript)
end getVarWithName
→ returns “Variable MyVar is undefined”
There’s a problem of heritance i can’t solve
To be clear: my script does not work!
The script stored in myScript is completely different than the script which creates it. It does not share any variable.
So you will need to pass the variable to the handler in the normal (and only) way:
global theGlobalVar
set theGlobalVar to "test"
display dialog getVar(theGlobalVar)
on getVar(aVar)
return aVar
end getVar
Thanks for the answer, i’ve understood the concept of global variable
What i do not see is:
I tried to explicitely make heritance possible, but it does not work either
global MyVar
global thisScript
set thisScript to me
set MyVar to "test"
getVarWithName("MyVar")
on getVarWithName(aString)
set myScript to "get " & aString
script myScript2
property parent : thisScript
run script myScript
end script
return (run script myScript2)
end getVarWithName
→ returns “Variable MyVar is undefined”
I have now idea what you mean with this. Just place global aVar in your script if you want to access the global variable.
I don’t think this is possible
See my PM
Thanks
Yahoo.
I found a way to do it (here http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=24559)
set var to {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
evaluate("var") --> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
to evaluate(theThing)
run script "on run {x}
return x's " & theThing & "
end" with parameters {me}
end evaluate
As a consequence i have found a solution for the above problem, i 'll post in code exchange
I get it! I’ll use this any day: 
set myvariable to {string:"83IFN93", number:2, name:"Code"}
evaluate("myvariable") --> {string:"83IFN93", number:2, name:"Code"}
to evaluate(theThing)
try
run script "on run {x}\nreturn x's " & theThing & "\nend" with parameters {me}
on error e number n
display dialog "ERROR: \"" & e & "\" NUMBER: " & n buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end evaluate
…damned !
I can’t believe it. :rolleyes:
I was so focussed on trying to get access to the variable names that i did forget what i wanted to do at the first place.
The program i came by with works, but it is just a loosy declination of the one of Dylan Weber.
To make it better
i still have some homework…
Here is something that can help: saving without a file.
property x : ""
on run
script o
property l : x
end script
set thetext to text returned of (display dialog x default answer "")
if x is o's l then
set x to thetext
end if
end run