General Question

makemo's avatar

AppleScript: get and reformat current date, then insert it in any text field?

Asked by makemo (525 points ) September 5th, 2008

Hi,

I’m about to create an AppleScript that can reformat the current date into a YY-MM-DD string and then insert the result in any active text field.

Here’s exactly what I want:

1. Get the current date.
2. Reformat and convert that date to a YY-MM-DD string.
3. Insert that string into a text field via System Events keystrokes.

So far, I’ve only figured out step 3:

tell application “System Events” to keystroke current_date

Step 1 is also faitly obvious, but I’m stuck in step 2 – on how to reformat the date into something less verbose.

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3 Answers

aidje's avatar

You’re my hero but I don’t know how to help you.

aidje (3602points )“Great Answer” (1points ) Flag as…
johnpowell's avatar

This is the best it could do. I haven’t played with Applescript much.

Not sure how to get around the parenthesis.

johnpowell (38619points )“Great Answer” (1points ) Flag as…
makemo's avatar

johnpowell: your contribution led to astonishing results. Thanks a bundle.

Here’s what I finally ended up using:

set {year:y, month:m, day:d, time string:t} to (current date)

set date_format to (y * 10000 + m * 100 + d) as string
set time_format to (t) as string

set reformated_date to (text items 3 thru 4 of date_format as string) & (text items 5 thru 6 of date_format as string) & (text items 7 thru 8 of date_format as string) & ” at ” & (text items 1 thru 2 of time_format as string) & (text items 4 thru 5 of time_format as string)

tell application “System Events” to keystroke (reformated_date)

makemo (525points )“Great Answer” (1points ) Flag as…

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