Stefan hasnt posted any scripts in this particular thread.
If you’re also referring to the (seemingly unrelated) thread to which @Homer712 linked above, I can only see one script posted by Stefan, which uses the find command line tool to enumerate files. While his command soecifically excludes files with names that begin with a dot that would be hidden in Finder, it would enumerate other files that are hidden in Finder (i.e. by way of the hidden file flag).
Bear in mind that Finder isn’t in charge of filesystems. It’s merely a front-facing graphical tool that shows users only what’s important/relevant for the average user to know about. It obfuscates a heck of a lot actually, and I don’t think it’s even capable of showing or providing access to character devices, sockets, fifos, etc. So, in principle, the only kinds of implementations for directory enumeration that one would expect to yield results that agree with the Finder are the ones that use Finder to do the enumerating. And that’s rarely a good idea for anyone not planning on living forever.
I have totally misunderstood this thread. Thank you for the explanation. Although I’m relatively new here, that is no excuse for not reading threads more thoroughly and then taking time to understand them, and if I still don’t, asking questions.
Dont go and flagellate yourself, or anything. It’s not a big deal. I pointed it out just in case you had intended to post your message into another thread and it ended up here by mistake while leaving you none-the-wiser. But if it’s simply a case of getting the wrong end of the stick about what’s being discussed in a particular thread, then I’d be surprised if this ends up being the last time you ever do this. Im pretty sure I did it myself a couple of hours ago, so I’ll wait and see what the response is to that.
These threads can end up getting really long, and if you happen to have dyslexia on top of this, it quicky becomes as easy to interpret as reading tea leaves at the bottom of a cup.
Prior to retiring (quite a few years ago now) I was an Electrical Engineer, and in any project there were three things that were always important. Detail, detail and more detail. I love being here on MacScripter over morning coffee. When I’m reading threads that catch my interest, I just need to make sure I’m fully awake.
A little coercion ensures we know the path structure. And I love using TIDs! It’s like they’re secretly machine code! CHOMP! CHOMP!
set myPath to "/users/test/downloads/folder-1/folder-2/folder-3/folder-4/"
set myPath to ((POSIX file myPath) as alias) as text
set {prevTIDS, text item delimiters} to {text item delimiters, ":"}
set {myPath, text item delimiters} to {text items of myPath, prevTIDS}
(length of myPath) - 2
Thank you for mentioning me, but the code is from post #9 and I would have never suggested “snail-paced” entire contents of the Finder.
Back to the topic: I’m wondering that nobody has proposed an AppleScriptObjC solution yet
use AppleScript version "2.5"
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
set aFolder to POSIX path of (choose folder)
set theURL to current application's NSURL's fileURLWithPath:aFolder
set depth to (theURL's pathComponents()'s |count|()) - 1
I tested Homer’s scripts on my 2023 Mac mini, and they quickly returned accurate results for folders in my home folder. I also tested the scripts on a folder on an external drive that contained 39,248 files in 8,121 folders. Once again, the scripts returned accurate results and only took a few seconds to execute. About the only issue I encountered was the scripts returned counts for the ~/Library folder when run on my home folder, and that was excessively slow. Anyways, Homer’s scripts may be a bit off-topic, and their source is an open question, but they are quite useful IMO.
use scripting additions
set x to "/Users/viking/Library/Containers/mongoose"
display dialog (do shell script "/bin/zsh -c 'print ${#${(@s:/:)0}}' " & x) as text
Result: 5
This is splitting the string x into an array and counting its elements.
To handle paths that contain white space or any characters that get treated differently by the shell, you need to use x's quoted form to produce a properly-escaped, single-quoted path.
Having used various UNIX systems long before DOS, Windows, either macOS, or Linux, I simply do not space punctuate file or folder names. So, for my path example, the code is correct.
However, you are also correct for those that do use space punctuation in the filesystem, and perhaps I should have used a multiple space path example and x’s quoted form to cover that usage case.
The as text cast has evolved as a habit over the years and I agree is superfluous.
The following checks to see if the path is to a folder and is a slight modification of Stefan’s ASObjC suggestion. The script assumes that a package is considered not to be a folder and that the path is to an item that exists.
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
set thePath to "/Users/Robert/Working/Test Folder/" --> 4
set thePath to "/Users/Robert/Working/Test Folder" --> 4
set thePath to "/Users/Robert/Working/Test File.txt" --> 3
set thePath to "/Users/Robert/Working/Test App.app" --> 3
set theURL to current application's NSURL's fileURLWithPath:thePath
set theDepth to (theURL's pathComponents()'s |count|()) - 1
set {theResult, aFolder} to (theURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLIsDirectoryKey) |error|:(missing value))
set {theResult, aPackage} to (theURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLIsPackageKey) |error|:(missing value))
if aFolder as boolean is false or aPackage as boolean is true then set theDepth to (theDepth - 1)
return theDepth
