Getting the path of the parent folder of a file?

Question

How can I get the parent folder/directory of a file? I cant't find any actions i Automator that will give me this.
Will I have to do this through AppleScript? If so, then how?
Anders

Answer 1

Mine should work as a stand-alone applescript droplet (save it as an application) from Script Editor.
This code will work in an Automator "Run Applescript" Action after a "Get Selected Finder Items" action:on run {input, parameters}
set pathList to {}
repeat with itemNum from 1 to count of input
tell application "System Events"
copy POSIX path of (container of (item itemNum of input)) to end of pathList
end tell
end repeat
return pathList
end run
It returns an Applescript list of each path for all the selected finder items. I had to change (number of items of) to (count of) as it failed in the Automator workflow.
If your workflow will only process one item at a time, then this will work in the workflow:on run {input, parameters}
tell application "System Events"
set thePath to POSIX path of (container of (item 1 of input))
end tell
return thePath
end run