Check if a string contains any of the lines in a text file

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Right now i have this hardcoded, but I need it to read from a file.


if theString contains "John" or "Jane" or "William" or "Bob"
        doThis()
else
        doThat()
end if

If possible, I need it to check from a file, and do basically the same thing. The contents of the file would be:

Model: Gen. 1 iMac G5
AppleScript: 1.10.7
Browser: Safari 419.3
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.4)

#2

How about this:


set tString to "This text contains the names John, George, and Bob."
set tNames to read alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "names")
repeat with aName in paragraphs of tNames
	if aName is in tString then display dialog aName & " is in tString"
end repeat
#3

Thanks a lot! It’s so simple, but I just didn’t even think of that. Anyway, to fit it in to the example of the normal if statement in my first post, I did the following:

set stringContainsName to false
set tString to "This text contains the names John, George, and Bob."
set tNames to read alias ((path to desktop folder as text) & "names")
repeat with aName in paragraphs of tNames
	if aName is in tString then set stringContainsName to true
end repeat
if stringContainsName then
	dothis()
else
	dothat()
end if
#4

For your setup codeman93, I’d add in an exit repeat so you don’t keep repeating after you already know that the string contains a name.

repeat with aName in paragraphs of tNames
	if aName is in tString then
		set stringContainsName to true
		exit repeat
	end if
end repeat
#5

Cool! Thanks Bruce. I didn’t know you could do that. :slight_smile:

#6

I had assumed that if the string contained more than one of the listed names, he wanted to know that.