alias (noun), pl aliasesAn alias to a file or a folder on disk.
«class alis»

Description

An alias object is very much like a file object. You can form an alias specifier in just the same way as you form a file specifier, and an alias object can often be used in the same places where a file object would be used. But there are some important differences:

• The item on disk that an alias represents must exist when the specifier is encountered at runtime. Thus an alias cannot be used to create a file or folder.
• An alias value can be assigned directly to a variable.
• An alias can continue pointing to an item on disk even if the item is moved or renamed.

Properties

Where Used

date (noun), pl datesA date-time value.
«class ldt »

Description

A date is a date-time, stored internally as a number of seconds since some fixed initial reference date. A date can be mutated in place, and is one of the classes for which set and copy behave differently.

A literal date is an object string specifier. In constructing a date, you may use any string value that can be interpreted as a date, a time, or a date-time. AppleScript supplies missing values such as today’s date (if you give only a time) or midnight (if you give only a date). To form a date object for the current date-time, use the current date scripting addition command.

Properties

Where Used

file (noun), pl files[synonyms: file specification]A reference to a file or a folder on disk.
«class file»

Description

A file object is a reference to a file or folder on disk. To construct one, use an object string specifier, the word file followed by a pathname string value:

                                file "MyDisk:Users:myself:"
                                

If you try to assign a file object specifier to a variable, or return it as a value, you’ll get a runtime error. Instead, you must generate a reference to the file object, like this:

                                set x to a reference to file "MyDisk:Users:myself:"
                                

You can also construct, and sometimes applications or scripting addition commands (such as choose file name) will return, a file specified by its POSIX path:

                                POSIX file "/Users/myself/"
                                

Such a specifier is actually of a different class, «class furl» (a file URL). This class can be difficult to distinguish from the basic file object type, but it is in fact different, and it can be assigned to a variable.

At runtime, when a file specifier is handed to some command, either the item must exist, or, if the command proposes to create it, everything in the path must exist except for the last element, the name of the item you’re about to create. Thus a file specifer can be used to create a file or folder; an alias can’t be used to do that, and this is a major difference between the two types.

Properties

Where Used

list (noun), pl listsA list of values.
«class list»

Description

A list is an ordered set of values, which are its items. Items can be specified by index number or by range. Each item can be of any datatype. A literal list is delimited by curly braces, with the items separated by commas. The literal empty list is just a pair of curly braces: {}. Lists are returned by applications from element specifiers such as every and boolean tests. AppleScript provides some operators for testing the contents of a list and for concatenating lists to form a new list. A list can be mutated in place, and is one of the classes for which set and copy behave differently. The cleanest way to append to a list is with set end of.

Properties

month (noun), pl monthsA calendar month.
«class mnth»

Where Used

weekday (noun), pl weekdaysA weekday.
«class wkdy»

Where Used

selection-object (record)The datatype of a selection.
«class csel»

Description

The selection-object datatype is a kind of legal fiction, originally designed to allow the selection property to have a class. It may be used behind the scenes as a way of carrying information, but you won’t work with a value of this datatype directly in AppleScript programming; the selection value will be a description of what is actually selected using some other class, such as text, a list of files, or whatever.

Properties

anything (type)[synonyms: any]Anything.
«class ****»

Description

The any datatype is used as a wildcard type in a dictionary, usually because the creators of the dictionary have found it impractical to list explicitly the actual possible types of a value. It isn’t used in AppleScript programming.

Where Used

April (type)The month of April.
«class apr »

August (type)The month of August.
«class aug »

boolean (type)A true or false value.
«class bool»

Description

A boolean is a datatype consisting of exactly two possible values, true and false, and is typically used wherever this kind of binary value possibility is appropriate. It results from comparisons, and is used in conditions. The integers 1 and 0 can be coerced to a boolean, and vice versa. The strings "true" and "false" can be coerced to a boolean, and vice versa.

Where Used

color (type)
«class cRGB»

Description

The color datatype is a list of three integers describing a color’s red, green, and blue components.

data (type)An AppleScript raw data object.
«class rdat»

Description

The data datatype represents raw data, a stream of bytes. It is a catch-all for situations when a value cannot be displayed or constructed in any other way.

December (type)The month of December.
«class dec »

double integer (type)A 64-bit integer value.
«class comp»

Description

AppleScript has no double integer type that can be manipulated in code. The double integer type appears occasionally in dictionaries. For example, in the Finder’s dictionary, an item’s size property is listed as a double integer. But the value is returned as a real.

extended real (type)An extended real number.
«class exte»

Description

AppleScript has no extended real type that can be manipulated in code. The extended real type appears occasionally in dictionaries, but the value is returned as an ordinary real.

February (type)The month of February.
«class feb »

fixed (type)A fixed-point real number.
«class fixd»

Description

AppleScript has no fixed type that can be manipulated in code. The fixed type appears occasionally in dictionaries, but the value is returned as an ordinary real.

fixed point (type)A list of two numbers, designating the x and y coordinates of a point in a plane.
«class fpnt»

fixed rectangle (type)A list of four numbers, designating a rectangle in the plane.
«class frct»

Description

There are various standards for using four numbers to designate a rectangle. The old way is to specify the x and y coordinates of the origin corner, and the x and y coordinates of the opposite corner, of the rectangle. But the origin corner might be the top left (traditional) or the bottom left (newer), and the Cocoa standard is to use the third and fourth numbers for the width and height of the rectangle.

GIF picture (type)Picture data in GIF format.
«class GIFf»

insertion location (type)[synonyms: location]A reference to a location within a collection where an object can be inserted.
«class insl»

Description

The insertion location type is used in specifying an element by position relative to some other element, typically as part of the make or duplicate command. It can be formed using before or after and an element specifier; or using beginning of or end of and a reference to an object, or just beginning or end alone; or using just an element specifier (when, for example, a created object should replace an existing element). Some examples:

                                tell application "TextEdit" tell text of document 1 make new word at after word 2 with data "not " duplicate word 1 to end duplicate word 1 to beginning of word 3 duplicate word 1 to word 7 end tell end tell
                                

integer (type)An integer value.
«class long»

Description

The integer datatype is one of the two basic number types; the other is real. An integer is a whole number, without a decimal point. It must lie between 536870911 and –536870912 inclusive.

Where Used

international text (type)An international string value.
«class itxt»

Description

In some older applications, before the advent of Unicode, the international text class was a way of representing text in accordance with a particular language and script (where “script” means a writing system); each language–script combination had its own rules (an encoding) for how particular sequences of bytes were mapped to characters (glyphs).

January (type)The month of January.
«class jan »

JPEG picture (type)Picture data in JPEG format.
«class JPEG»

July (type)The month of July.
«class jul »

June (type)The month of June.
«class jun »

March (type)The month of March.
«class mar »

May (type)The month of May.
«class may »

November (type)The month of November.
«class nov »

number (type)A floating point or integer number.
«class nmbr»

Description

The number datatype is a catch-all numeric type designed for coercions. For example, a string that looks like an integer or a real can be coerced to a number; the result is that it is coerced to an integer or a real, whichever is appropriate, without your having to worry about which is appropriate.

Where Used

October (type)The month of October.
«class oct »

point (type)A list of two numbers, designating the x and y coordinates of a point in a plane.
«class QDpt»

Where Used

PostScript picture (type)Picture data in EPS format.
«class EPS »

property (type)A reference to a property.
«class prop»

Description

The property (or property specifier) datatype is used in a dictionary to indicate that a value is a property. For example, in the Finder’s dictionary, the by parameter of the clean up command is a property.

real (type)A real number.
«class doub»

Description

The real datatype is one of the two basic number types; the other is integer. A literal real has a decimal point. A large real will be expressed in scientific notation. (Examples: 100.0, 1.0E+26.)

record (type)An AppleScript record.
«class reco»

Description

A record is an unordered collection of name-value pairs. Each value may be of any type. A literal record looks like a literal list except that each item has a name, which is separated from the corresponding value with a colon:

                                set R to {firstname:"John", lastname:"Doe"}
                                

There is no empty record as distinct from the empty list; the empty list {} is treated as the empty record for purposes of containment and concatenation. Records are passed to a few important commands, such as make, and are returned as a way of providing a table of information. AppleScript provides some operators for testing the contents of a record and for concatenating records to form a new record. A record can be mutated in place, and is one of the classes for which set and copy behave differently.

Where Used

reference (type)[synonyms: object, specifier]A reference to an element in a collection of objects.
«class obj »

Description

The reference (or specifier, or object) datatype is used in a dictionary as a wild-card type, to indicate that a value will be a reference to an element, of some unspecified class, within the application.

Where Used

RGB16 color (type)
«class tr16»

Description

See on the color datatype.

RGB96 color (type)
«class tr96»

Description

See on the color datatype.

script (type)A script object.
«class scpt»

September (type)The month of September.
«class sep »

small integer (type)A 16-bit integer value.
«class shor»

Description

AppleScript has no small integer type that can be manipulated in code. The small integer type appears occasionally in dictionaries. For example, in the Finder’s dictionary, a column’s width property is listed as a small integer. But the value is returned as an ordinary integer.

small real (type)A 32-bit real number.
«class sing»

Description

AppleScript has no small real type that can be manipulated in code. The small real type appears rarely in dictionaries, but the value is returned as an ordinary real.

string (type)A plain text string value.
«class TEXT»

Description

The string or text datatype is the basic text type. It is Unicode, so it can include any character. However, the read and write scripting addition commands interpret as text or as string (or nothing) to mean MacRoman; to get UTF-16, say as Unicode text, and to get UTF-8, say as «class utf8».

A literal string (or text) is delimited by quotation marks, with the empty string symbolized by "".

                                set s to "howdy" class of s -- text
                                

The following are the properties of a string (or text). They are read-only.

length

The number of characters of the string. You can get this same information by sending the count message to the string.

quoted form

A rendering of the string suitable for handing to the shell as an argument to a command. The string is wrapped in single quotation marks and internal quotation marks are escaped.

id

The codepoints of the Unicode characters constituting the string: an integer or list of integers. The reverse operation, from a list of integers to text, is through the string id specifier.

The following are the elements of a string. They cannot be set, because a string cannot be mutated in place.

character

A string representing a single character of the string.

word

A string representing a single word of the string. It has no spaces or other word-boundary punctuation.

paragraph

A string representing a single paragraph (or line) of the string. It has no line breaks. AppleScript treats a return, a newline, or both together (CRLF) as a line break.

text

A run of text. Its purpose is to let you obtain a single continuous string using a range element specifier:

                                words 1 thru 3 of "Now is the winter" -- {"Now", "is", "the"} text from word 1 to word 3 of "Now is the winter" -- "Now is the"
                                

text item

A “field” of text, where the field delimiter is AppleScript’s text item delimiters property (or, if text item delimiters is a list, any item of that list).

styled text (type)A styled string value.
«class STXT»

Description

The styled text datatype cannot be directly manipulated in code, and is usually represented as if it were an ordinary string. It is occasionally encountered indirectly, as when retrieving text data from the clipboard. Here, in order to get a representation of the styling, we coerce the styled text to a record:

                                tell application "Finder" activate set x to (the clipboard) end tell x as record -- {«class ktxt»:"test", «class ksty»:«data styl000100000000000D000A00100000000C000000000000»}
                                

Before Unicode, the style resource was also sometimes used as a way of carrying encoding information.

text (type)A plain text string value.
«class ctxt»

Description

The text or string datatype is the basic text string type. It is Unicode, so it can include any character. However, the read and write scripting addition commands interpret as text or as string (or nothing) to mean MacRoman; to get UTF-16, say as Unicode text, and to get UTF-8, say as «class utf8».

A literal text string is delimited by quotation marks, with the empty string symbolized by "".

                                set s to "howdy" class of s -- text
                                

The following are the properties of a text string. They are read-only.

length

The number of characters of the text string. You can get this same information by sending the count message to the string.

quoted form

A rendering of the text string suitable for handing to the shell as an argument to a command. The text string is wrapped in single quotation marks and internal quotation marks are escaped.

id

The codepoints of the Unicode characters constituting the text string: an integer or list of integers. The reverse operation, from a list of integers to text, is through the string id specifier.

The following are the elements of a text string. They cannot be set, because a text string cannot be mutated in place.

character

A text string representing a single character of the text string.

word

A text string representing a single word of the text string. It has no spaces or other word-boundary punctuation.

paragraph

A text string representing a single paragraph (or line) of the text string. It has no line breaks. AppleScript treats a return, a newline, or both together (CRLF) as a line break.

text

A run of text. Its purpose is to let you obtain a single continuous text string using a range element specifier:

                                words 1 thru 3 of "Now is the winter" -- {"Now", "is", "the"} text from word 1 to word 3 of "Now is the winter" -- "Now is the"
                                

text item

A “field” of text, where the field delimiter is AppleScript’s text item delimiters property (or, if text item delimiters is a list, any item of that list).

Where Used

type class (type)[synonyms: type]A class value.
«class type»

Description

The type class datatype (or class, or type) is the value type of a value type. For example, when you ask AppleScript for the class of a value, and AppleScript tells you that it is an integer or a real or a folder or whatever, this value must itself be of some class, and this is it. There are times when it is necessary to pass a class to a command; for example, the make command needs to know what class of object to create.

Where Used

unicode text (type)A Unicode string value.
«class utxt»

Description

Historically, the unicode text type was distinct from string and text, but now they are the same thing, and the dictionary distinction is a matter of backward compatibility. In AppleScript programming, the term unicode text is now used almost exclusively in coercions with the read and write scripting addition commands, where it means UTF-16.

For more information, see on the string datatype.

unsigned integer (type)An unsigned integer value.
«class magn»

Description

AppleScript has no unsigned integer type that can be manipulated in code. The unsigned integer type appears occasionally in dictionaries. For example, in the Finder’s dictionary, a window’s id property is listed as an unsigned integer. But the value is returned as an ordinary integer.

version (type)A version value.
«class vers»

Description

The version datatype is practically confined to one value: AppleScript’s own version. The versions of applications are usually text, and to work usefully with AppleScript’s version (e.g., to parse it) you will need to coerce it to text.

                                get class of (get AppleScript's version) -- version
                                

writing code (type)Codes that identify the language and script system.
«class psct»