Note: This is a work in progress and many formatting issues have been fixed. Read more about the project on the home page.

number

the number of [card] {buttons|parts}

the number of bkgnd {buttons|parts}

the number of card fields

the number of [bkgnd] fields

the number of marked cards the number of cards [in bkgnd] ¬

   [of this stack]

the number of bkgnds [of this stack]

the number of windows

the number of menus

the number of menuItems of menu

the number of chunks in expression

Values returned: A non-negative integer equal to one of the following:

total number of buttons or fields on the current card or background
total number of parts (buttons and fields combined) on the current card or background
total number of marked cards, cards in a specific background, cards in an entire stack, or backgrounds in a stack
number of all the windows (including built-in palettes and external windows) in HyperCard
number of menus in the menu bar or the number of menu items in a specified menu
total number of characters, words, items, or lines in the value of any HyperTalk expression (treated as text)

Examples

-- Count the menu items in a menu:

the number of menuItems of menu 2

the number of menuItems of second menu

the number of menuItems of menu "File"

-- Count the number of objects:

the number of card fields

the number of background buttons

the number of cards

the number of cards of this background

the number of backgrounds

the number of parts

the number of background parts

-- Count the number of chunks in text (including containers):

the number of chars in card field 2

the number of lines in the stacksInUse

-- Do something based on the number of cards:

repeat with i = 1 to the number of cards of this background

   statements

end repeat

repeat with i = 1 to the number of marked cards

   statements

end repeat

Demo Script

on numberOfChunks

  get bkgnd field "Demo Script"

  answer "There are" && the number of lines in it && ¬

  "lines and" && the number of words in it && "words and" && ¬

  the number of characters in it && "characters in this handler."

end numberOfChunks

Placeholders

bkgnd

A HyperTalk expression that identifies a background by name, number, or id, using one of the following forms:

bkgnd id posInteger

bkgnd text -- name

bkgnd posInteger -- number

ordinal bkgnd

position bkgnd

For example:

bkgnd id 3894

bkgnd "Index"

bkgnd 1

prev bkgnd

previous bkgnd

next bkgnd

this bkgnd

first bkgnd

last bkgnd

middle bkgnd

any bkgnd

From within a background script, the term me refers to that background.

When a background receives a the message [the] target, that message is referring to the background.

chunks

One of the following:

characters

chars

words

items

lines

expression

HyperTalk Definition

Any HyperTalk expression. All expressions evaluate to text, a number, or a constant.

For example:

true

sin(90)

"this is" && it

(3+2) = 5

the heapspace div 1024

Note: Formally, HyperCard distinguishes between factors (simple values) and expressions. The difference between factors and expressions matters only if you like to drop parentheses. Most functions take factors as their parameters, which is why length of 3 + 5 returns 6 and length of (3 + 5) returns 1. In short, always use parentheses to group things the way you want them to evaluate, and you won’t have to worry about the difference between factors and expressions.

AppleScript Definition

Any series of words that has a value.