Importing space delimited iPad text files into number

Question

Lots of iPad app collect data as space delimited text files ( where is tab key on iPad) how can I import these files into numbers for analysis and plotting?

Answer 1

Hi Wayne
In the posted datas, some dates end with a period but some don't.
Between values there are :
period (not always. None after the 1st date and after the one just above "no scale travel to Tucson")
space
Given the source which I used, I got different spaces.
In one case they were NO BREAK spaces
In the example which you posted, the first missing period is revealed
The second one isn't revealed because you didn't treated the entire set of datas.
I assume that when there are datas after the decimal values, they are supposed to be in a 3rd column.
Given these features, I wrote a script deciphering automatically the set of datas.
Adjust the property « fromClipboard » to match what you use as source.
--{code}
--[SCRIPT split-table-from-ipad]
Treat the set of datas imported from iPad by VerusEx
see Apple Discussions forum :
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3879328?tstart=0
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France)
2012/04/17
property fromClipboard : true
true = get datas from the clipboard
false : get the datas from a text file
on run
          if fromClipboard then
                    set lesValeurs to the clipboard as text
          else
                    set lesValeurs to read (choose file of type {"public.plain-text"})
          end if
Instruction removing NO BREAK spaces which I got when I copied from the mail which I received from the forum.
          set lesValeurs to my supprime(lesValeurs, character id 160)
Replace every groups of space characters by a single one
          repeat
                    if lesValeurs does not contain "  " then exit repeat
                    set lesValeurs to my remplace(lesValeurs, "  ", space)
          end repeat
Replace single digit + space by single digit + tab.
Useful to take care of cases when period is missing,
or to split strings stored after a digit + a space
          repeat with i from 0 to 9
                    set lesValeurs to my remplace(lesValeurs, (i as text) & space, (i as text) & tab)
          end repeat
Replace period + space by a tab
          set lesValeurs to my remplace(lesValeurs, ". ", tab)
Save the deciphered datas in a temporary text file
          set leFichier to (path to temporary items as text) & "azertyuiop.txt"
          my writeTo(leFichier, lesValeurs, text, false)
Open the temporary file in Numbers
          tell application "Numbers" to open leFichier
end run
--=====
replaces every occurences of d1 by d2 in the text t
on remplace(t, d1, d2)
          local oTIDs, l
          set oTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d1
          set l to text items of t
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d2
          set t to "" & l
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTIDs
          return t
end remplace
--=====
removes every occurences of d in text t
on supprime(t, d)
          local oTIDs, l
          set oTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d
          set l to text items of t
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
          set t to l as text
          set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTIDs
          return t
end supprime
--=====
Handler borrowed to Regulus6633 - http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=36861
on writeTo(targetFile, theData, dataType, apendData)
  -- targetFile is the path to the file you want to write
  -- theData is the data you want in the file.
  -- dataType is the data type of theData and it can be text, list, record etc.
  -- apendData is true to append theData to the end of the current contents of the file or false to overwrite it
          try
                    set targetFile to targetFile as text
                    set openFile to open for access file targetFile with write permission
                    if not apendData then set eof of openFile to 0
  write theData to openFile starting at eof as dataType
  close access openFile
                    return true
          on error
                    try
  close access file targetFile
                    end try
                    return false
          end try
end writeTo
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
--{code}
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 17 avril 2012
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3
My Box account  is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k