Language Guide

CHAPTER 2

Overview of AppleScript

Other Features and Language Elements 25

Continuation Characters 2

A simple AppleScript statement must normally be on a single line. If a statement

is longer than will ﬁt on one line, you can extend it by including a continuation

character, ¬ (Option-L or Option-Return), at the end of one line and continuing

the statement on the next. For example, the statement

delete word 1 of paragraph 3 of document "Learning AppleScript"

can appear on two lines:

delete word 1 of paragraph 3 of document ¬

"Learning AppleScript"

The only place a continuation character does not work is within a string. For

example, the following statement causes an error, because AppleScript interprets

the two lines as separate statements.

--this statement causes an error:

delete word 1 of paragraph 3 of document "Fundamentals ¬

of Programming"

Note

The characters -- in the example indicate that the ﬁrst line

is a comment. A comment is text that is ignored by

AppleScript when a script is run. Comments are added to

help you understand scripts. They are explained in the

next section, “Comments.” ◆

If a string extends beyond the end of the line, you can continue typing without

pressing Return (the text never wraps to the next line), or you can break the

string into two or more strings and use the concatenation operator (&) to

join them:

delete word 1 of paragraph 3 of document "Fundamentals " ¬

& "of Programming"

For more information about the concatenation operator, see Chapter 6,

“Expressions.”