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Miscellaneous Operators

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() (Parentheses) Operator
AsList Function
Is A, Is Not A, Isn't A, Is All, Is Not All, Isn't All Operators
There Is, There is No, Exists, Does Not Exist, Doesn't Exist, ...Operators
Is Within, Is Not Within, isn't Within Operators
&&& (Join/Triple Ampersand) Operator
Joined By, Split By Operators
As Operator
AsObject Function
(If ... Then ... Else ...) Operator

( ) (Parentheses) Operator

Behavior: Use parentheses to control the order in which operations are performed within an expression. See Precedence of Operators to understand the order in which operations are performed when parentheses are not used. When in doubt, use parentheses to ensure operations are carried out in the desired order. Also see Uses of Parentheses for more details.

Syntax:

(expression)

Example:

put 2 * (height + width) into perimeter

AsList Function

Behavior: The asList function is called with an object (property list) as a parameter, it first checks whether the object has an asList property. If so, its value is returned. If not, and the object has an asListExpression property, the value of that property is evaluated as an expression (equivalent to calling the value() function) to obtain the list value. If the object has neither of these properties, an asList function message is sent exclusively to the object and its helpers, and its return value is used.

If the target is not an object (or does not have an asList or asListExpression property or an asList function handler) and it is not already a list, the target's string value is evaluated as an expression (equivalent to calling the value() function) to obtain the list value.

Syntax:

{the} asList of factor

asList(expr)

Example:

put file "scores" as a list into testScores

Is A, Is Not A, Isn't A, Is All, Is Not All, Isn't All Operators

Behavior: Checks whether a value is valid as a particular type, or analyzes the contents of a value. You can test whether a value is or is not a number, integer, even number, odd number, positive number, negative number, positive integer, negative integer, point, rectangle, date, time, or Boolean. A variable can be tested to see whether it is a list, a range, an iterator, a file, a folder, a tree, or an object. You can also test whether a character or all characters in a value are digits, letters, alphanumeric, uppercase, lowercase, punctuation, blank (or whitespace), blankOrReturn (or whitespaceOrReturn), or controlChars. You can tell if a value is actually a reference to another container, by testing whether or not it is a reference. In addition, the is a operator can also be used to test for custom object types if the object defines an objectType property (see the ObjectType property in Special Properties).

Syntax:

valueToTest is {not} a typeIdentifier

valueToTest is {not} all typeIdentifier

Examples: The following expressions all yield "true":

put pi is a number

put pi is not an integer

put -12 is an even number

put 5683 is an odd number

put 98.6 is a positive number

put 0 isn't a positive number

put -13.2 is a negative number

put 144 is a positive integer

put -1 is a negative integer

put "123, 12.5" is a point

put "123, 12.5, 245, 25" is a rectangle

put (snow is greater than rain) is a boolean

put (a,b,c) is a list

put 14..94 is a range

put (a,b,c) is an iterator

put "July 4, 1776" is a date

put "/System/Library/Fonts/Courier.dfont" is a file

put "/System" is a folder

put (partnum:"4X56N32", qty:14) is an object

put 6 is a digit

put character 2 of "4X56N32" is a letter

put "J946Ux" is an alphanumeric

put "a" is a lowercase

put "ABCdef" isn't all uppercase

put "(),.;:!?[]{}%\’/" is all punctuation

put space is a blank

put space & tab & return is all blankOrReturn

put tab is a controlChar

put @foo is a reference

put radius:23, objectType:("Shape", "Circle") is a "Circle"

put <"[", character, "]"> is a pattern

An error is raised if typeIdentifier is not one of the following valid identifiers, or an expression that evaluates to one of the built-in identifiers listed below, unless valueToTest is an object or property list.

If the valueToTest is an object, the is a operator evaluates to the value returned by sending an isObjectType function message to the object, with typeIdentifier as a parameter. The default implementation of this function checks the objectType property of the object contains the typeIdentifier. If a property list has an objectType property, it may be a single value or a list of values. If typeIdentifier is equal to any item in the objectType list, the is a operator will evaluate to true, otherwise it will be false.

Boolean logical	"true" or "false", "yes" or "no", "on" or "off"
Identifier	True When the Value to Test Is
date time	a value other than a single number that can be converted to a date or time value
even number	a whole number that is evenly divisible by 2
file	a file object or file name of an existing file, not a folder
folder directory	a file object or file name of an existing folder, not a plain file
integer or int	a "whole" number without any fractional part
iterator	an iterable value such as a list or range
list	a list
negative integer	a whole number that is less than zero
negative number	a number that is less than zero
number	a number
object propertyList	an object or property list
odd number	a whole number that is not evenly divisible by 2
pattern	a pattern definition using SenseTalk's pattern language
point	a list of two numbers, or two numbers separated by commas
positive integer	a whole number that is greater than zero
positive number	a number that is greater than zero
range	a range
rectangle rect	a list of four numbers, a list of two points, or four numbers separated by commas
reference	a reference to another container
tree	a tree

The following identifiers can be used to test the type of characters in a text value:

Identifier	True When Every Character of the Value to Test Is
alphanumeric	a letter or a digit
blankOrReturn whitespaceOrReturn	a space or a tab or a return
blank whitespace	a space or a tab
controlChar controlChars	a hidden control character such as return, tab, formfeed, etc.
digit digits	a digit: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, or 9
letter letters	an upper- or lower-case letter
punctuation	a punctuation character such as , . ! ? ; :
lowercase	a lower-case letter
uppercase	an upper-case letter

There Is, There Is Not A, There Isn't A, There Is No, Exists, Does Not Exist, Doesn't Exist Operators

Behavior: Tests for the existence of a file, folder, variable, object, or object property. In the case of variables, this operator returns true if the variable has been assigned a value.

Syntax:

there is a thingThatMayExist

there is not a thingThatMayExist

there isn't a thingThatMayExist

there is no thingThatMayExist

thingThatMayExist exists

thingThatMayExist does not exist

thingThatMayExist doesn't exist

Where thingThatMayExist is one of:

file fileName

folder folderName

object objectIdentifier

property propertyName of someObject

variable localOrDeclaredVariableName

global globalVariableName

universal universalVariableName

Example:

if there is a folder "BankReport" then ...

Example:

if there is no file "secretpasswords" then ...

Example:

if there is not an object "printHelper" then ...

Example:

if there is a property cost of material then ...

Example:

if there is a variable controller then ...

Example:

if file "answers" doesn't exist then create file "answers"

Example:

if property sequence of part exists then add 1 to part's sequence

Is Within, Is Not Within, Isn't Within Operators

Behavior: Tests whether a point lies within a rectangle, whether one rectangle is completely contained by another, or whether a value falls within a given range. All forms of the is within operator test for containment inclusive of the edges or endpoints of the containing rectangle or range. So, for example 9 is within 5..9 will evaluate as true.

Points are always specified as a pair of numbers representing the x and y coordinates of the point. Usually, these two values are given as a two-item list such as (12,42), but a text string containing two numbers separated by commas can also be used, such as “12,42”.

Rectangles are specified as 4 numbers, representing the locations of the left, top, right, and bottom of the rectangle, such as (5,18,105,118) — this rectangle would actually be a square, with both width and height of 100. You can also think of the four numbers as describing two points, which are opposite corners of the rectangle. A rectangle can also be specified as a list of 2 points.

Syntax:

point is {not} within rectangle

rectangle1 is {not} within rectangle2

value is {not} within range

Example:

if mousePoint is within windowBorder then ...

Example:

if lastLoc + (12,8) is within (10,10,90,50) then ...

Example:

if windowRect is not within screenRect then ...

Example:

if day is within 1 .. lastValidDay then ...

&&& (Join/Triple Ampersand) Operator

Behavior: Joins two lists or values into a single list of values. The result of this operation is always a list, even if one of the operands is empty.

Syntax:

operand1 &&& operand2

Example:

put [1,2,3] &&& [4,5] into oneList -- [1,2,3,4,5]

Example:

put oneList &&& 6 -- (1,2,3,4,5,6)

Example:

put 0 &&& oneList-- [0,1,2,3,4,5]

Example:

put 12 &&& 42 into luckyList-- [12,42]

Joined By, Split By Operators

Behavior: The joined by operator combines the elements of a list or property list into a text string. The split by operator does the reverse, taking a text string and producing a list or property list from it. The word combined may be used in place of joined, and either with or using may be used instead of by in either operator if you prefer.

When working with property lists, two separators should be used. The first indicates the text separator between elements, and the second specifies the text separator between each key and its corresponding value. To split or join a list, only a single separator is needed.

Syntax:

sourceStructure [joined | combined] [by | with | using] separator1 {and separator2}
sourceText split [by | with | using] separator1 {and separator2}

Example:

put path split by "/" into components

Example:

set newPath to components combined using "/"

Example:

put {a:1, b:2} joined with ";" and "=" -- "a=1;b=2"

Example:

split inputString by <character in ".,:;">

As Operator

Behavior: The as operator can be used to tell SenseTalk to treat a value as a particular type, or force conversion to a different representation at a particular point in a script. For example, the as text operator can be used to force textual comparisons of values that might otherwise be compared as numbers.

Syntax:

sourceValue as [text | {a} string | number | date | time | color | data | {a} {property} list | {an} object | {a} tree | boolean | integer | base64]

Example:

if today is "April 15" as date then payTaxes

Example:

performTextOperation (hours * rate) as text

Example:

put "007" is equal to "7.0"-- true (numeric comparison)

Example:

put "007" is equal to "7.0" as text-- false

Example:

put file "cust2497" as a property list into customer

Tech Talk

Internally, the as operator calls the asText, asNumber, asDate, asTime, asColor, asData, asList, asObject, and asTree functions.

The existence of the as operator does not imply that SenseTalk is a "typed" language. In fact, it is an "untyped" language, with values converted automatically to whatever internal representation is needed at any time. In practice, there are only a few relatively rare situations in which you will need to use this operator to explicitly force the internal representation of a value.

For example, SenseTalk won't automatically perform a date/time comparison just because two values could be treated as date/time values. To compare two values as date/times, both values must be in that representation, otherwise they will be compared as text, giving very different results (April comes before January alphabetically, for instance). One way to ensure this is by specifying as date or as time after both values as needed, as shown in the first example above.

Similarly, as data can be used to perform direct comparisons of raw binary data values rather than their text representations. It is most often used when reading or writing binary data files to keep the data in binary format. The byte chunk type can then be used to access individual bytes or byte ranges within the data.

The as list and as property list (or as object) operators are somewhat different. They don't merely indicate how a value should be treated, but for any value that isn't already in the requested representation they will evaluate that value's text as an expression (in the same manner as the value() function) to produce the requested structure. The as tree operator will similarly evaluate text as XML (equivalent to calling the treeFromXML() function).

When the value to be converted is an object, it may control its representation in each format if it implements an asText, asNumber, etc. handler, or has special properties that apply for the requested type. See the relevant as… function documentation for full details.

See Conversion of Values for more information on automatic conversion of values, and when you might use the as operator.

AsObject Function

Behavior: When the asObject function is called with a tree as a parameter, it converts the tree to a property list representation, according to the setting of the treeFormat's useStandardFormat property, otherwise the parameter's string value is evaluated as an expression (equivalent to calling the value() function) to obtain the property list value.

Syntax:

{the} asObject of factor
asObject(expr)

Example:

set ComputerSpecs to an empty tree

set ComputerSpecs's _tag to "Gaming"

set ComputerSpecs 's RAM to 16 GB

set ComputerSpecs 's Storage to 2 TB

put ComputerSpecs -- Displays the text representation of the tree '<Gaming RAM="16 gigabytes" Storage="2 terabytes"></Gaming>'

put ComputerSpecs as an object -- Displays the property list representation '{_tag:"Gaming", RAM:"16 gigabytes", Storage:"2 terabytes"}'

(If ... Then ... Else ...) Operator

Behavior: Evaluates to one of two values depending on some condition. The (if ... then ... else ...) operator, also known as a Selector Expression, can be used to select one of two values or an optional value within an expression, or to select one of two containers.

The selector expression, although it looks very similar, is not the same as the if ... then ... else ... control structure which controls whether statements are executed or not. Note that parentheses are always required around a selector expression, and it must always include a then expression. If the else expression is omitted, empty is assumed (that is, it's the same as saying else empty). The else expression is required when specifying a container.

Syntax:

(if condition then expression1 {else expression2})

Example:

put "Delivered " & count & " widget" & (if count > 1 then "s")

Example:

put (if a>b then a else b) into bigger

This is equivalent to:

if a>b then put a into bigger else put b into bigger

Example:

The selector expression can also be used anywhere a container is expected, provided that both the then and else expressions specify containers:

add 100 to (if a<b then a else b)-- add to whichever is smaller

This is equivalent to:

if a<b then add 100 to a else add 100 to b -- add to whichever is smaller

This topic was last updated on August 19, 2021, at 03:30:51 PM.