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Re: How to detect if a file exists
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Re: How to detect if a file exists


  • Subject: Re: How to detect if a file exists
  • From: "Mark J. Reed" <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:03:38 -0400

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 7:29 PM, Stockly, Ed<email@hidden> wrote:
> In your script AppleScript does not know that the string
> "/Users/Andrew/Desktop/Stencil.doc" is a reference to a file. You’re
> essentially asking if the string itself exists and, since it’s right there
> in the script, it does exist so the condition is true and the dialog
> displays.

Pretty much.

> What you want to do is enclose the command inside a finder tell, and
> indicate it’s a file reference, but AppleScript uses colons to delimit
> directories, so you’ll either want to coerce your path to an alias or use
> this format for your file reference.

You don't need an alias; just use "POSIX file" inside the Finder tell:

tell application "Finder"
    if POSIX file "/Users/Andrew/Desktop/Stencil.doc" exists then
(display dialog "Hello world")
end tell

You *can* coerce to an alias if you prefer; that will fail if the file
doesn't actually exist, so you don't have to talk to the Finder or
System Events to find that out:

try
   POSIX file "/Users/Andrew/Desktop/Stencil.doc" as alias
   display dialog "Hello, world!"  -- won't get here if the file doesn't exist.
end try

--
Mark J. Reed <email@hidden>
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References: 
 >How to detect if a file exists (From: Andrew P <email@hidden>)
 >Re: How to detect if a file exists (From: "Stockly, Ed" <email@hidden>)

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