RE: copy & set statments
RE: copy & set statments
- Subject: RE: copy & set statments
- From: "Ted Wood" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 21:27:17 -0700
The short of this is as follows:
a) 'copy' places a copy of the value into the variable:
copy x to 5 -- x gets 5
copy y to x -- y gets 5
b) 'set' places an address to the value (if possible) into the
variable. The exception to this is when you 'set' a variable to a
literal value, as in the 'set x to 5' line below:
Set x to 5 -- x gets 5
Set y to x -- y gets the address of x
-- if x changes, y sees
the new value
c) 'a reference to' copies a reference (or address) into the variable.
This can be used for many object in AppleScript, such as files, items in
a list, words in a paragraph, etc.
set x to (a reference to word 2 of paragraph 3)
-- x gets 'word 2 of paragraph 3'
copy (a reference to word 2 of paragraph 3) to x
-- x gets the actual value of word 2 of paragraph 3
-- note how copy's result was different because of its
nature
set y to item 2 of theList
-- y gets 'item 2 of theList', it the item changes, y sees
it
copy (a reference to item 2 of theList) to y
-- y gets the actual value of item 2 of theList
-- if item 2 changes, y doesn't see it
Hope that helps.
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