Applescript calculator gets error -1728

Question

Applescript calculator gets error -1728

My code worked formerly until I realized that my calculator will only do multiplication because of the conditions met from the list are always true. I need to be able to choose an operation but the I cannot get any sort of text or button (e.g. text returned of result or button returned of result) so I tried to just get around but clearly failed. I am at my wit's end. Thanks in advance for any help.

The error is:

error "Can’t get button returned of {\"multiplication\"}." number -1728 from button returned of {"multiplication"}

P.S. I already tried using "on error" to catch it before cancels the script but I couldn't get it to work.

display dialog "Enter value" with title "Calculator" with icon 2 default answer ""

set X to text returned of result

display dialog "Enter SECOND VALUE" with title "Calculator" with icon 2 default answer ""

set Y to text returned of result

try

set X to X as number

on error

display dialog "Cannot Calculate"

end try

try

set Y to Y as number

on error

display dialog "Cannot Calculate"

end try

set multiply to X * Y

set divide to X / Y

set add to X + Y

set subtract to X - Y

set exponent to X ^ Y

set M to "multiplication"

set D to "division"

set A to "addition"

set S to "subtraction"

set E to "exponential"

set choices to {M, D, A, S, E} (* make list *)

choose from listchoices(* let me choose from the list *)

if button returned of result is item 2 of choices then

display dialogmultiply

else if choices contains D then

display dialogdivide

else if choices contains A then

display dialogadd

else if choices contains S then

display dialogsubtract

else if choices contains E then

display dialogexponent

end if

MacBook Air

Posted on Oct 13, 2015 7:03 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Niel

Level 10

726,935 points

Oct 13, 2015 7:08 PM in response to chevydogincode

Here:

set choices to {M, D, A, S, E} (* make list *)

set the_button to (choose from list choices (* let me choose from the list *))

if the_button is false then return

if the_button contains M then

display dialog multiply

(134905)

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Answer 2

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Oct 13, 2015 10:37 PM in response to chevydogincode

My guess is that you have some spill-over from a previous script that used 'display dialog' rather than 'choose from list'.

The problem lies in the part where you:

choose from listchoices(* let me choose from the list *)

if button returned of result is item 2 of choices then

The issue is that the chosen option is not part of the 'button returned' from 'choose from list'. 'button returned' is a property of the result from 'display dialog' where you can detect which button the user clicked. In the case of 'choose from list' the result is a list of the selected item(s) in the list, so you want to compare the actual result, not the 'button returned'. Neil's code shows you one way of doing this.

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