How to insert some data into a string of AppleScript

Question

I have a function that sends a string "theData". I want to insert that string here in this code. Would someone please tell me the correct syntax for this? Things get a bit hairy with the \"s and the "s. Thanks!

NSTask *task;
task = [[NSTask alloc] init];
[task setLaunchPath:@"/usr/bin/osascript"];
[task setArguments:[NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"-e", @"tell application \"System Events\"\n", 
                                             @"-e", @"    keystroke \"" + theData + "\"", 
                                             @"-e", @"end tell", nil]];
[task launch];

There's probably a much better way to simulate keystrokes with Objective-C... — icktoofay
– icktoofay, Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 2:53
And in fact, it looks like there is. (stackoverflow.com/questions/2379867) — icktoofay
– icktoofay, Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 2:56
oooooh, just saw this. it works flawlessly (so far) in 10.6 for me, but could this be a problem? CGPostKeyboardEvent Deprecated in Mac OS X v10.6 developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Carbon/Reference/… — 371273
– 371273, Commented Jul 3, 2010 at 1:44
Use CGEventCreateKeyboardEvent: developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Carbon/Reference/… (Also see this: stackoverflow.com/questions/2008126/… ) — has
– has, Commented Jul 4, 2010 at 7:45

Yuji · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-02 05:07:59Z

1

icktoofay already gave the more correct answer, but let me just show how to insert a string in a string:

       NSString* toBeInserted = @"for";
       NSString* result = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"in%@mation",toBeInserted]; 
       NSLog(@"%@",result);

This gives information. For more details, read Apple's doc.

I mean, Apple's doc is quite good, actually. Read it before asking a question here at SO.

By the way, you don't have to launch osascript to execute AppleScript. You can use NSAppleScript as in

NSAppleScript* script=[[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:@"tell app \"Finder\" to activate "];
NSDictionary*error;
[script executeAndReturnError:&error];
[script release];

Well, NSAppleScript is an oddity which requires NSDictionary, not an NSError, to report an error ...

Or, you can use Scripting Bridge to map AppleScript objects to Objective-C objects.

edited Jul 2, 2010 at 5:07

answered Jul 2, 2010 at 4:57

Yuji

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Comments

Tom H · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-02 05:02:37Z

0

I see you have another way of doing it, but you can use format strings to accomplish this

[NSString stringWIthFormat: @"part one %@ part 2", theData];

Assuming the data is an nsstring containing "hello", this will give you:

@"part one hello part 2"

answered Jul 2, 2010 at 5:02

Tom H

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