Language Guide

CHAPTER 4

Commands

82 Using Results

two different applications to edit a graphic, the data value returned by one

Edit Graphic command can be sent as the direct parameter of another Edit

Graphic command.

If an application returns values of class Data, its documentation should say so.

Using Results 4

The result of a command is the value generated when the command is executed.

You can display the result of a command in the Script Editor. For example, if

you run the following script,

tell front document of application "Scriptable Text Editor"

move word 1 to end of paragraph 1

end tell

and then choose Show Result from the Controls menu in the Script Editor,

you’ll see a value such as

word 32 of front document of application "Scriptable Text Editor"

You can use a command that returns a result as a value. For example, the Count

command in the following statement returns a value: the number of words in

the third paragraph.

count words in paragraph 3

You can use this statement anywhere a value is required by enclosing the

statement in parentheses. For example, the following statement sets the value

of numWords to the value returned by the Count command.

set numWords to (count words in paragraph 3)

In addition to displaying the result of a command in the result window,

AppleScript puts the result into a predeﬁned variable called result. The value

remains there until the next command is executed. If the next command does

not return a result, the value of result is undeﬁned. The following two