Create copy and paste string

Question

hi there, what I would like to do is the following
enter data into a cell, this searches for information on another sheet(I have work that one out) when the found information is highlighted that info is then copied to that cell
i can do this by copy and paste but wondered if it could be made simpler ie creating a box/ button that grabs the highlighted info and dumps it in the original cell
eg type in oranges to cell a1, that searches column on sheet 2 called product, it finds anything call oranges(there may be more than one) I choose which one I click either on it or on a button or something and it dumps that info back to a1 then performs the lookup which I have previously sorted
i I hope this makes sense
i am not very knowlegable re using spreadsheets so a simple explanation would be best
kind regards

Answer 1

The script below will do something like what you describe:
Copy into AppleScript Editor, enter your value in A1, and click the green triangle 'Run' button. Your choice in the dialog is then inserted in cell A1.
If you're doing this a lot you could place it in an Automator Service and assign a keyboard shortcut.  You could also skip the first step of entering a value in the the cell first, and have the script ask you directly, then insert the value for you.
SG
property currentTable : "Table 1"
property searchCell : "A1"
property lookupTable : "Products"
property lookupColumn : "A"
tell application "Numbers"
  set s to front document's active sheet
  set c to s's table currentTable's cell searchCell
  set searchValue to c's value
  if searchValue is missing value then return
  set productList to s's table lookupTable's column lookupColumn's cell's value
  set matchesList to {}
  repeat with i in productList
  if i's contents contains searchValue then copy i's contents to end of matchesList
  end repeat
  try
  set selectedMatch to choose from list matchesList with title "Which product?"
  set c's value to selectedMatch
  if c's value is 0 then set c's value to ""
  on error
  display dialog "No matches. Try again." buttons "Ok"
  end try
end tell