Applescript buttons returned from display dialog

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set the_results to (display dialog ("ENTER COMPANY NAME") with title ("TOTAL SHARE SPECIFICATION") buttons {"Cancel", "Company"} default button "Company" default answer "")
set BUTTON_Returned to button returned of the_results
set CompanyName to text returned of the_results

The short answer is because you are using result which always refersto the result returned by the last statement. So in this case the result in the line

setCompanyNametotext returnedoftheresult

is not referring to the return value of the display dialog statement but to the value returned by the

setBUTTON_Returnedtobutton returnedoftheresult

statement.

To fix this set a variable to the value returned by the display dialog statement and use that.

set valueReturned to display dialog ("ENTER COMPANY NAME") with title ("TOTAL SHARE SPECIFICATION") buttons {"Cancel", "Company"} default button "Company" default answer ""

set BUTTON_Returned to button returned of valueReturned
set CompanyName to text returned of valueReturned

No question that Applescript can be frustrating to learn. Many things about it have to be figured out by trial and error and when dealing with scripting applications all bets are off. The application designer can pretty much do as they want so what works in one app might not work in another even though you are using the same and correct applescript 😕

I find Introduction to AppleScript Language Guide by Apple to be a good source of answers and usually always have it open when I'm scripting for quick reference.

Spend some time getting familiar with the script editor. It is intelligent and can usually steer you in the right direction when it comes to debugging. Especially get use to and pay attention to the colors it assigns to items in your script.

For example in your original script notice the colors of Button_Returned and CompanyName (your variables) and compare those to result and button returned. Also notice how text returned is a different color from button returned even though both are essentially the same thing. This is an indication that something is not right and it is where the error message occurred. (for a list of the default colors used open the Script Editors preferences and look at the Formatting tab).

Notice also how the editor formats your scripts, again the way the script gets formatted can tell you a lot if there is an error.

Finally the error messages while cryptic can offer some clues. In your case the error message was

error "Can’t get text returned of \"Company\"." number -1728 fromtext returnedof "Company"

generated by the line

setCompanyNametotext returnedoftheresult

The last part of the error message is essentially the line that caused the error after evaluation. So here result evaluated to “Company” which doesn't seem right, display dialog returns a record.

Finally there is the log statement which will print its value to the log window

Hope this helps

regards

Another handy trick is to use a variable to hold all the responses from the dialog:

set the_response to {text returned, button returned} of (display dialog "Feed me some info..." buttons {"1", "2", "3"} default answer "Some info")

item 1 of the_response -- the text

item 2 of the_response -- the button pressed

These can be recalled long after the dialog has been dismissed.

As display dialog returns a record you can take that one step farther and get

display dialog "Hello" default answer "" buttons {"1", "2", "3"} giving up after 5

set {ans, button, giveUp} to {text returned, button returned, gave up} of result

display dialog "Ans: " & ans & return & "Button: " & button & return & "Give Up: " & giveUp

Then the values returned are stored in their own variable and there is no need to access them from the list.

Hi, is it possible to isolate input, for example in a math equation. The user enters 3+4 in a dialog box and the script sets variable a to "3" and variable b to "4"?