AppleScript 101 - How do I make random values?

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Level 1

9 points

AppleScript 101 - How do I make random values?

How do I create random values in AppleScript? For instance, if I wanted to create a delay of 40-50 seconds which random selects a number in between there?

Also, how would I do for it text? Like if I wanted my script to type out either "blue" or "red"

example: Set textToType to "The bard is wearing a {blue or red} tunic"

G4 iMac, Mac OS X (10.3.x), busted disk drive too lazy to fix

Posted on May 2, 2010 6:10 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

732,233 points

May 2, 2010 6:12 PM in response to eGeekee

For a number:

random number from 40 to 50

For text:

some item of {"blue", "red"}

(51594)

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Answer 2

eGeekee Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2010 6:14 PM in response to Niel

Whoa, extremely fast response, thank you very much.

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Answer 3

eGeekee Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2010 6:28 PM in response to eGeekee

Having difficulties implementing the code

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Answer 4

eGeekee Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2010 6:35 PM in response to eGeekee

okay, so I tried to test out the code and it doesn't seem to be working. This is my code:

tell application "TextEdit"
launch
repeat
delay (random number from 2 - 8)
some item of {"hello", "goodbye"}
end repeat
end tell

This doesn't seem to be doing anything at all, I also can't seem to put the "some item of {"hello", "goodbye"}" into a set textToType/keystroke command.

What am I doing wrong here? Is there a command to make either "hello" or "goodbye" typed that I'm not doing?

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Answer 5

Niel

Level 10

732,233 points

May 2, 2010 6:44 PM in response to eGeekee

Use the following:

tell application "TextEdit"
launch
repeat
delay (random number from 2 to 8)
set textToType to "text" & some item of {"hello", "goodbye"} & text
end repeat
end tell

(51595)

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Answer 6

eGeekee Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2010 6:55 PM in response to Niel

Perfect, got it working. Thank you so much.

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