Controlling and directing a repeat loop

Question

I thought I was getting the hang of applescript, but have been working on this one for a few days to no avail...must be an easy solution and I just don't see it. Anyway... I have a set of data in Excel that I have successfully read into a list and am trying to use the data to control the way it is put into another Excel file, specifically a number of different sheets within a series of Excel files. I'll post the entire script I have at the bottom of this post, but essentially here is the issue: If a list has something like {{2010,B,T001,201},{2020,C,T001,202},{2020,C,T002,301}} how might I use the fact that the third item in the list of lists (think I am saying that correctly) changes to control where the script puts the data. In other words I want the last set of data {2020,C,T002,301} to go to another Excel sheet based on the fact that it has a different value in the third item as compared to the earlier sets of data...hope I haven;t confused you! Here is the script that I "working" right now.
Thanks,
dan
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
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margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 340px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFDDFF;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
-- Works with an Excel file [csv is ok] to move scheduled sections from one Excel file into another Excel file set up as a daily Schedule  for the courses taught by a teacher.  Each daily schedule file will be dept based and have multiple workbooks--
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
activate
open file "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:09-10 Teacherdata.xlsx"
activate object workbook "09-10 Teacherdata.xlsx"
activate object worksheet "Sheet 1"
get value of used range of worksheet 1 of file "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:Desktop:09-10 Teacherdata.xlsx"
copy the result to wholedata
set lvalue to length of wholedata
set counter to lvalue
set cellnum to 1
set cellid to ""
set slotvalue to ""
set deptname to {"English", "Humanities", "Mathematics", "Language", "Science", "Arts"}
set deptnamefile to {"MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:English Schedules 10-11.xlsx", "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:Humanities Schedules 10-11.xlsx", "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:Mathematics Schedules 10-11.xlsx", "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:Language Schedules 10-11.xlsx", "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:Science Schedules 10-11.xlsx", "MacBook HD:Users:Dano:School:Scheduling:Applescript & Excel Files:Arts Schedules 10-11.xlsx"}
set columnchoices to {"J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "O", "P", "Q"}
set teachingslot to {"A ", "B ", "C ", "D ", "E ", "F ", "G ", "H "}
set cvalue to {0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
set tid to ""
repeat with i from 2 to counter
copy item i of wholedata to cvalue
copy item 3 of cvalue to tid
repeat with i from 1 to 6
if item 5 of cvalue = item i of deptname then
if item 3 of cvalue = tid then
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
activate
open item i of deptnamefile as alias
activate object worksheet 1
set nextfile to item i of deptnamefile
end tell
copy item 2 of cvalue to slotvalue
repeat with i from 1 to 8
if slotvalue = item i of teachingslot then
if tid = item 3 of cvalue then
set cellid to item i of columnchoices & "3"
set formula of cell cellid to item i of teachingslot
set formula of cell "J1" to item 3 of cvalue
save
else
activate object worksheet 2
set cellid to item i of columnchoices & "3"
set formula of cell cellid to item i of teachingslot
set formula of cell "J1" to item 3 of cvalue
save
end if
end if
end repeat
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
close workbook 1 saving yes
end tell
end if
end if
end repeat
end repeat
set onepiece to {}
set lastrow to {}
set courseID to {}
end tell </pre>

Answer 1

ok...thanks to the last 2 posters for the help. I think this is moving me in the right direction, but have a few questions/points:
You're welcome Dan! Let me see if I can help some more...
when I use ...repeat with aList in theList is "aList" a variable that I have to define or does it pull off the a list at a time from a list of lists (that's what I'd like it to do).
aList is a variable that contains a list. It is what you're wanting it to be.
Not sure I understand the command... log "made new spreadsheet " & lastThirdItem what is this log command? (guess I'll look into this, although it isn't in my Applescript book (Applescript 1-2-3))
The log command is useful to "log" information in your script as it goes along. It's primary use is for debugging a script. If you click on "Events" (located at the bottom of the ScriptEditor window, just to the left of "Replies" and "Result"), you can watch for useful information about the progress of your script as it executes. The log command can be safely omitted.
Point of clarification: my list that includes {"20501", "B", "T1441", "201", "Humanities"} is large... 280 rows of data, and it changes from year to year. Since it is in Excel I can sort it and group the data based on the 3rd item ("T1441"), but the number of times this variable shows up...varies and thus I guess I'm looking for a way to load the data into a list and then have Applescript work through it parsing the data that has the same 3rd item into one worksheet, and then the next group of data that has the same 3rd item into another worksheet and so on, with the 4th item controlling the workbook it is going to. I think I might just start from scratch after looking into these alist and log commands.
If I'm understanding you correctly, the following script example should get you started in the right direction to achieve what you are looking to do...
<pre style="width:630px;height:auto;overflow-x:auto;overflow-y:hidden;"
title="Copy this code and paste it into your Script Editor application.">set theLists to {{"20501", "B", "T1441", "201", "Humanities"}, {"10601", "A", "T1561", "102", "English"}, {"20502", "D", "T1441", "201", "Humanities"}, {"20503", "F", "T1441", "201", "Humanities"}, {"36251", "E", "T1661", "103", "History"}, {"20504", "H", "T1441", "201", "Humanities"}, {"10101", "J", "T1661", "103", "History"}}
set thirdItemList to {}
repeat with aList in theLists
set thisThirdItem to item 3 of aList
if thisThirdItem is not in thirdItemList then copy thisThirdItem to end of thirdItemList
end repeat
repeat with thisThirdItem in thirdItemList
set thisItem to thisThirdItem as string
--make new spreadsheet
log "made new spreadsheet " & thisThirdItem
repeat with aList in theLists
if (item 3 of aList) as string is thisItem then
--do stuff to spreadsheet
log "adding info to spread sheet " & thisThirdItem
end if
end repeat
end repeat</pre>
The above script finds each different third item and makes a list of those. It then creates and appends information to one spreadsheet at a time until all third items have been accounted for. Harder to explain than to show someone in person! Run the above script in the ScriptEditor application and watch the "Events" log.
thanks,
dan
Again, you are welcome. I wish you luck my friend! Hope this helps some more...