delete

Command

Delete chunkExpr — to delete a specific chunk or range of text, or items from a list

Examples:

delete chars 3 to 7 of address

delete item 9 of namesList

delete the last character of line 1 of description

delete byte chunk

The delete command can also be used to delete a byte chunk from within a binary data value. This will reduce the overall size of the data by the number of bytes that are deleted.

Examples:

delete byte 5 of myData

delete the last 2 bytes of myData

delete bytes 100 to 199 of myData

• delete specific text or pattern

  • Examples:

    delete "abc" from codes

    delete the first 3 occurrences of <"$",max digits> in text

    delete every comma within customerRecord

• delete items by value

  • new in 2.04

  • You can delete items by value, rather than by their position. This is done using an each expression, which can be used to delete items in a list or any text chunk type (lines, words, items, or characters). A where, which, or whose clause selects the specific values to be deleted.

  • Examples:

    delete each item of scores which is less than or equal to zero

    delete each line of file "entries" which is empty

        delete each item of subscriberList whose expirationDate is earlier than yesterday

• delete a property from a property list

  • Examples:

        set dress to {color:"blue", pattern:"gingham", price:$85, size:"small"}
    delete dress.price
    put dress —> {color:"blue", pattern:"gingham", size:"small"}

• delete node from a tree

  • Examples:

        delete node "product/description" of order

• delete reference

  • When a variable is set as a reference to a chunk of another value, the delete command can be used to directly delete that chunk.

  • Examples:

        set numbers to [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
    repeat with each num in numbers by reference
        if num is an odd number then delete num
    end repeat
    put numbers —> [2,4,6,8]

Related Terms

• delete file, delete folder, delete records, delete variable