SenseTalk includes several operators that you can use specifically for working with text values.
On this page:
- & (Ampersand)Operator
- && (Double Ampersand) Operator
- Is In, Is Contained By, Is Not In, Isn't In Operators
- Contains, Does Not Contain, Doesn't Contain Operators
- Is Among, Is Not Among, Isn't Among Operators
- Begins With, Does Not Begin With, Doesn't Begin With Operators
- Ends With, Does Not End With, Doesn't End With Operators
- Matches Operator
& (Ampersand) Operator
Behavior: Creates a text string by combining values one after another. Both operands are converted to text representations if they are not already text before concatenation.
Syntax:
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
put "The answer is:" & answer
&& (Double Ampersand) Operator
Behavior: Joins (concatenates) two values with a space between them. Both operands are converted to text representations if they are not already text before concatenation.
Syntax:
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
put "Dear" && correspondent & "," into openingLine
Is In, Is Contained By, Is Not In, Isn't In Operators
Behavior: Tests for the presence or absence of one value within another, returning true or false.
Ordinarily, this operator is not case-sensitive. To force case-sensitivity, use the considering case option.
Syntax:
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
When sourceValue is a list, this operator tests whether any of its values is equal to targetValue. If targetValue is also a list, it tests whether a consecutive sequence of the values in sourceValue are equal to the values in targetValue.
When sourceValue is a range, it is treated the same as a list (as would be generated by converting the range to a list) with the values in that list checked for the presence of targetValue. This is different from the is within operator which checks whether a value lies anywhere between the start and end values of the range.
When sourceValue is a property list (object), the behavior can be determined by the object itself, or the built-in containsItem function (see Checking Object Contents for details).
When targetValue is a pattern, defined by using SenseTalk's pattern language, this operator tests whether the pattern matches any substring within the sourceValue.
Otherwise, sourceValue is evaluated as text, and tested to see if it contains targetValue as a substring. To force a substring text search when sourceValue is a list or property list, use the asText function or as text operator to convert it to text.
Example:
if "--help" is in commandLine then ...
Example:
if "Johnson" is not in indexList then ...
Example:
put 12 is in [[11,12],[13,14]] -- True
Example:
put [2,3] is in [1,2,3,4,5] -- True
Example:
put [2,3] is contained by 1..5 -- True
Example:
put <"(", chars,")"> is in "Elvis (the King) Presley" -- True
Contains, Does Not Contain, Doesn't Contain Operators
Behavior: Tests for the presence or absence of one value within another, giving true or false. Ordinarily, this operator is not case-sensitive. To force it to be case-sensitive, use the considering case option. This performs exactly the same operation as the is in operator, but allows the relationship to be expressed the other way around. Use whichever one feels more natural in a given context.
Syntax:
sourceValue contains targetValue {considering case | ignoring case}
sourceValue does {not} contain targetValue {considering case | ignoring case}
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
When sourceValue is a list, this operator tests whether any of its values is equal to targetValue. If targetValue is also a list, it tests whether a consecutive sequence of the values in sourceValue are equal to the values in targetValue.
When sourceValue is a range, it is treated the same as a list (as would be generated by converting the range to a list) with the values in that list checked for the presence of targetValue. This is different from the is within operator which checks whether a value lies anywhere between the start and end values of the range.
When sourceValue is a property list (object), the behavior can be determined by the object itself, or the built-in containsItem function (see Checking Object Contents for details).
Otherwise, sourceValue is evaluated as text, and tested to see if it contains targetValue as a substring. To force a substring text search when sourceValue is a list or property list, use the asText function or as text operator to convert it to text.
Example:
if commandLine contains " -x " considering case then ...
Example:
if word n of partNums doesn't contain "q" then ...
Example:
put nameList contains "Mayfield" into shouldInvite
Example:
put 5..17 by 2 contains 8 -- false, since only odd numbers are generated
Example:
put ["abcd","defg"] contains "abc" -- false
Example:
put ["abcd","defg"].asText contains "abc" -- true
Is Among, Is Not Among, Isn't Among Operators
Behavior: Tests for the presence or absence of one value as a whole chunk, list item, key or value within another. Ordinarily, this operator is not case-sensitive. To force it to be case-sensitive, use the considering case option. ChunkTypes can be any of characters, chars, words, lines, items, text items, list items, keys, values, or bytes
Syntax:
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
put "cat" is among the items of "dog,cat,mouse" -- True
Example:
put "be" is not among the words of "bell jibe amber" -- True
Example:
if "cost" isn't among the keys of part then set part's cost to 10
Begins With, Does Not Begin With, Doesn't Begin With Operators
Behavior: Checks whether or not a text string begins with a particular sequence of characters, or whether a list begins with a particular value or sequence of values. Ordinarily, this operator is not case-sensitive. To force it to be case-sensitive, use the considering case option.
Syntax:
operand1 does {not} begin with operand2 {considering case | ignoring case}
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
if sentence begins with "Joshua " considering case then ...
Example:
if word n of productNames does not begin with "q" then ...
Example:
if [9,12,14,23] begins with [9,12] then put "yes" -- yes
Ends With, Does Not End With, Doesn't End With Operators
Behavior: Checks whether a text string ends with a particular sequence of characters, or whether a list ends with a particular value or sequence of values. Ordinarily, this operator is not case-sensitive. To force it to be case-sensitive, use the considering case option.
Syntax:
operand1 does {not} end with operand2 {considering case | ignoring case}
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
if sentence ends with "?" then ...
Example:
if word n of plurals does not end with "es" then ...
Example:
if scoresList ends with [98,99,100] then resetScores
Example:
put "size 13W" ends with <2 digits then a letter> -- True
Matches Operator
Behavior: Use the matches operator to test whether a variable or expression is an exact match for a pattern. One of the operands must be a pattern, and the other is treated as a string value. This operator returns true if the pattern fully matches the entire string. If the pattern matches only part of the string or doesn't match at all, the result of the match operator is false.
The matches operator returns true if the pattern can potentially match the full value, even if the usual match of the pattern might not return the full string due to lazy quantifiers being used (which is the default).
For information about SenseTalk's pattern language, see SenseTalk Pattern Language Basics.
Syntax:
operand1 matches operand2
operand1 [doesn’t | does not] match operand2
Reading Syntax Definitions
Syntax definitions for language elements follow these formatting guidelines:
- boldface: Indicates words and characters that must be typed exactly
- italic: Indicates expressions or other variable elements
- {} (curly braces): Indicate optional elements.
- [] (square brackets) separated by | (vertical pipes): Indicate alternative options where one or the other can be used, but not both.
Example syntax:
In this example, "open file" is required and must be typed exactly. "fileName" is a variable element; it is the path to and name of the file being opened. The following expression is optional and indicates why the file is being opened. If this expression is added, "for" is required and must be typed exactly. One of the following must be included, but only one, and they also must be typed exactly: "reading", "writing", "readwrite", "appending", or "updating".
Example:
put 83 matches <digit,digit> --> True
Example:
put <"x", 3 chars, "y"> matches "xyzzy" --> True
Example:
put <"$", digits> matches "$895" --> True
put the occurrence of <"$", digits> in "$895" --> "$8"
Example:
set partNum to <"ABC", digit, char in "JQXZ", digit>
put partNum matches "Abc9Q2" --> True ("ABC" is not case sensitive)
put partNum matches "Abc9Q2" with case --> False ("ABC" must match case)
Eggplantsoftware.com | Documentation Home | User Forums | Support | Copyright © 2022 Eggplant