SPLIT STRING

When I get home I'll fix it up for you. It's just a rounding thing.

Somebody will probably beat me to it.

Hopefully I'm teaching you to fish 🙂

Eric

Try this. It's the best I can do for now.

def split_me (str,n)
 wordcount = str.scan(/[^s]+/).size
 ms = str.scan /(([^s](s)?){#{(wordcount.to_f/n).ceil}})/
 ms.each do |m|
 print "#{m[0]} "
 end
end
 
splitme(ARGV[0],ARGV[1].toi)

Eric

Nevermind...

Message was edited by: Chachi

handellphp wrote:
Still got the wrong number of lines when I ran this with dividing by 4.
Also how do i run the ruby script without calling on it from a text file?

Beats me. I hate AppleScript 🙂

I think whether or not the Ruby/Perl or whatever code is embedded inthe AppleScript is the least of your troubles.

No problem. I'll think about it some more this weekend.

Hopefully I've shown you some tricks you may not have realized.

Eric

OK handell. I took a different approach to the problem. This time I tried to "optimize" the layout so the minimum amount of "overrage" is found by laying out the words multiple times. The minimum solution is returned.

def split_me (str,n, allowed=0)
 wordcount = str.scan(/[^s]+/).size
 charcount = str.length
 newlinelength = (charcount/n)
 lines = []
 line = ""
 overrages = []
 ms = str.scan /([^s](s)?)/
 ms.each do |m|
 chunk = m[0]
 if lines.size == n-1 then
 line = line + chunk
 elsif (chunk.length+line.length <= (newlinelength+allowed) ) then
 line = line + chunk
 else 
 lines << line
 overrage = line.length - newlinelength
 overrages << overrage if overrage >= 0
 line = chunk
 end
 end
 if line != "" then
 lines << line
 overrage = line.length - newlinelength
 overrages << overrage if overrage >= 0
 end
 [lines,overrages]
end
#
# let's call split_me a number of time allowing for different overrages and try
# to find the minimum actual overrage. thats the one well think looks best
#
def split_opt(str,n)
 res = []
 lastmin = str.length
 charcount = str.length
 newlinelength = (charcount.to_f/n).ceil
 (0..(newlinelength-1)).each do |i|
 lines,overrages = split_me(str,n,i)
 # p overrages.min
 if overrages.min < lastmin then
 res = lines
 lastmin = overrages.min
 end
 end
 res
end
res = splitopt(ARGV[0],ARGV[1].toi)
res.each do |r|
 print "#{r} "
end

ruby abc.rb 'The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts' 1
The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts
ruby abc.rb 'The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts' 2
The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal 
Country Club, Casino & Resorts
ruby abc.rb 'The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts' 3
The Ohio Valley 
Longer-word-than-normal 
Country Club, Casino & Resorts
ruby abc.rb 'The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts' 4
The Ohio Valley 
Longer-word-than-normal 
Country Club, Casino 
& Resorts
ruby abc.rb 'The Ohio Valley Longer-word-than-normal Country Club, Casino & Resorts' 5
The Ohio 
Valley 
Longer-word-than-normal 
Country Club, 
Casino & Resorts

You can call ruby from your AppleScript like I've shown you before.

Eric

You can save the ruby script in the contents/resources folder in the application bundle. It's a little messy, but does work. This way you will not have to copy two files to the target system.
I named the applescript file stringDividerV2.app
I named the ruby file stringDivide.rb


mac $ ls -ld /Applications/Applescript\ files/stringDividerV2.app/
drwxr-xr-x 3 mac wheel 102 Feb 21 15:29 /Applications/Applescript files/stringDividerV2.app//
mac $ ls -l /Applications/Applescript\ files/stringDividerV2.app/Contents/Resources/stringDivide.rb
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac wheel 1308 Feb 21 14:50 /Applications/Applescript files/stringDividerV2.app/Contents/Resources/stringDivide.rb


See:
on run
-- Write a message into the event log.
log " --- Starting on " & ((current date) as string) & " --- "
(* path to me doesn't work for me in Script editor in Tiger.
Run as application bundle.
Should work in Tiger, so maybe it was fixed in a later Mac OS

may work better in Smile

If you use save as in script editor for Tiger, your resource will disappear. Re-copy
*)
set path_to_script to (path to me as string) -- & "Contents:Resources:stringDivide.rb"
-- Get around Tiger impletement path to me as path to application, hence
-- script editor
if path_to_script contains "Script Editor" then
log "must be debuggin"
-- You will need to adjust !!!
set path_to_script to (path to applications folder as string)
-- You will need to adjust !!!
set path_to_script to path_to_script & "Applescript files:" & "stringDividerV2.app:"
end if
log "path_to_script= " & path_to_script
set path_to_script to POSIX path of (alias path_to_script)
log "path_to_script= " & path_to_script
set path_to_script to path_to_script & "/Contents/Resources/stringDivide.rb"
(* Not working for me... In tiger 10.4.11 *)
-- set path_to_script to path to resource "stringDivider.rb"
set path_to_script to escapeString(path_to_script)
log "path_to_script= " & path_to_script
set foobar to "'The Ohio Valley Country Club, Casino & Resorts'"
set res to do shell script "ruby " & path_to_script & " " & foobar & " 2"
display dialog res


end run

-- ------------------------------------

on escapeString(thisString)

set thisString to alterString(thisString, "\\", "\\\\")
set thisString to alterString(thisString, " ", "\\ ")
set thisString to alterString(thisString, quote, "\\" & quote)

end escapeString

on alterString(thisText, delim, replacement)
set resultList to {}
set {tid, my text item delimiters} to {my text item delimiters, delim}
try
set resultList to every text item of thisText
set text item delimiters to replacement
set resultString to resultList as string
set my text item delimiters to tid
on error
set my text item delimiters to tid
end try
return resultString
end alterString

That's a good tip. Thanks rc.

Eric

Hi,

Something tells me that there is no replacement for the human eye on this problem.

I completely agree with you. Nevertheless, the following script (beta version) seems to return the expected result for each and every example discussed so far in this thread. Please note however that it could not work as well with texts having more than one +extraordinarily longer+ than usual word.

Maybe you would like to try it.

--BEGINNING OF SCRIPT

splitString("one two three four five six extraordinarily_longer", 3) -- for example

on splitString(theText, N)
set theWords to words of theText
set TNW to count theWords -- total number of words
if N < 1 or N > TNW then return "Choose N between 1 and " & TNW & "."

--Provide for one extraordinarily longer word than usual :
set maxWordLength to length of item 1 of theWords
repeat with thisWord in rest of theWords
if length of thisWord > maxWordLength then set maxWordLength to length of thisWord
end repeat
set theLength to length of theText
set L0 to theLength / N -- average length of each line
if L0 < maxWordLength then set L0 to (theLength - maxWordLength) / (N - 1)

set theNewText to ""
set j to 0 -- number of lines
set CNW to 0 -- number of words in the first j lines
repeat (N - 1) times
set j to j + 1
set currentLine to ""
set L to 0 -- length of the current line
set k to 0 -- number of words in the current line
set endOfLine to false
repeat until L > L0
if TNW - CNW - k = N - j then
set endOfLine to true
exit repeat
end if
set k to k + 1
set L to length of (text 1 through word k of theText)
end repeat
if endOfLine then
set k to k + 1
set L to (length of (text 1 through word k of theText)) - (length of (word k of theText))
else
set L to L - (length of (word k of theText))
if L = 0 then
set k to k + 1
set L to (length of (text 1 through word k of theText)) - (length of word k of theText)
else -- Let's see if one more word wouldn't be better :
set k to k + 1
set L2 to (length of (text 1 through word k of theText)) - (length of (word k of theText))
if (L2 - L0) < (L0 - L) then set L to L2
end if
end if
set currentLine to text 1 through L of theText
set theText to text (L + 1) through -1 of theText -- the rest of the text
set CNW to CNW + (count words of currentLine)
set theNewText to theNewText & currentLine & character id 8232 -- end of line
end repeat

return theNewText & theText -- add the last line
end splitString

--END OF SCRIPT

Hope it can help.