Section 16.1. Strings

16.1. Strings

return

---

"\r"

"\r"

Macintosh line-break character. There does not seem to be any conflict with the keyword return (see "Returned Value" in Chapter 9). The only place where a conflict could occur is when return is the first word of a line. The rule in that situation seems to be that if return is followed by an operator, it can't be the keyword, so it must be this property.

Example

 "This is a line." & return & "This is another line." 

tab

---

"\t"

"\t"

Tab character.

Example

 "an item" & tab & "another item" 

quote

---

"\""

"\""

Quote character. (This is new in Tiger.)

Example

 quote & "This is cool," & quote & " said Tom frigidly." 

space

---

" "

" "

Space character.

Example

 "word" & space & "otherWord" 

text item delimiters

---

"" (the empty string)

"" (the empty string)

The text item delimiters global property has two uses: it is used to split a string into its text item elements (see "String" in Chapter 13), and it is used to join list items when a list is coerced to a string (see "List Coercions" in Chapter 14). In theory it is a list of strings, but in fact it can be set to a string, and if it is a list, only the first item of the list matters.

Example

 set text item delimiters to ":" text item 1 of (path to system folder as string)