I'm looking to make a consecutive list of numbers in Applescript. One could create such a list using a repeat loop, but that seems messy. Is there anything that works like this?
range from 1 to 10
-> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
Yes, answering the last question first, there is (using four more lines) a list-of-lists repeat loop:
set nlist to {}
repeat with n from 0 to 9
set nlist2 to {n + 1}
set nlist to nlist & nlist2
end repeat
nlist
--> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
Basically, if you repeatedly merge lists, you create a list of lists, whereas...
set nlist to {}
repeat with n from 0 to 9
set nlist to {n + 1}
end repeat
nlist
--> {10}
...would just result in the last number of the loop. (Surely, there must be other ways, too.)
The closest one-line equivalent of ranges is probably "items 1 through 10" -but only for an existing list; example:
set rangeB to {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15}
set nlist to items 1 thru 10 of rangeB
nlist
-->{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10}
Regarding the title question, if it's a function you need, in Applescript they are called handlers, there is no preset range function, but you may create a customized range function for your task like this:
on range(a, b)
set nlist to {}
repeat with n from a - 1 to b - 1
set nlist2 to {n + 1}
set nlist to nlist & nlist2
end repeat
end range
--
range(5, 20)
-->{5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20}