Best way to store and retrieve data in a text file

Question

I want to write to a text file and then in another Applescript read the same data into an array
I'll have 5 lines of text data
What would be the best format?
CSV?
XML maybe?
Just a plain file with each line of data separated by pressing enter?
Thanks
Omar

Answer 1

I agree with Frank - for just 5 lines, simple text is probably sufficient.
However, if the point is just to pass data between two AppleScripts you could even use native AppleScript objects - for example, you could write the list (array) to the file and then read it back in directly, e.g:
Write the data:
-- create a list of any types:
set myList to {"a string", 3.14159, "foo", {name:"Joe", age:21}}
-- create a file
set f to open for access (choose file name) with write permission
-- write your (binary) data to it
write myList to f
-- and close the file
close access f
Now, separately, you can read it back:
set x to read (choose file) as list