Moving more than one line in a listfield

[depstein at att.net]

This is a subset of a more elaborate function, so I hope it still works.  It 
can be used to move the selected lines of a list-type field to the top or 
bottom of the list, or up or down.

David Epstein


function reListed theList,actPieces,action,myDelim, at newSelec
-- theList is the starting list; if return-delimited, pass return as myDelim
-- actPieces gets passed the hilitedLines of the field containing theList
-- action is 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on where you want to move the selected 
lines.
-- the function returns the modified list, and loads variable newSelec
-- with a comma-delimited list of numbers useful for setting the appropriate 
-- hilitedLines of the field after the list has been altered.

  put theList into origList
  replace "," with " " in actPieces
  set the itemDelimiter to myDelim
  put the number of items in theList into z
  put the number of words in actPieces into p
  repeat with w = p down to 1
    put word w of actPieces into i
    put myDelim & item i of theList before newList
    delete item i of theList
  end repeat
-- items (lines) specified in actPieces are now listed in newList, and
-- have been removed from theList.  The rest of the script
-- combines those newList and theList in the right order.

  delete char 1 of newList
  switch action
  case 1 -- move newList to the top
    put rangeList(1,p) into newSelec
    return newList & myDelim & theList
  case 4 -- newList to the bottom
    put rangeList(z-p+1,z) into newSelec
    return theList & myDelim & newList
  case 2 -- newList up
    put word 1 of actPieces into slot
    if slot < 3 then
      put rangeList(1,p) into newSelec
      return newList & myDelim & theList
    else
      put slot - 1 into slot
      put rangeList(slot,slot+p-1) into newSelec
      return item 1 to slot-1 of theList & myDelim & newList & myDelim & item 
slot to -1 of theList
    end if
  case 3 -- newList down
    put word -1 of actPieces into slot
    if slot = z then -- last selected is at end of list
      put rangeList(z-p+1,z) into newSelec
      return theList & myDelim & newList
    else
      put slot + 2 - p into slot
      put rangeList(slot,slot+p-1) into newSelec
      return item 1 to slot-1 of theList & myDelim & newList & myDelim & item 
slot to -1 of theList
    end if
  end switch
end reListed

function rangeList a,z -- returns comma delimited series of numbers from a to 
z
  put z-a into myCount
  if myCount = 0 then return a
  put a into hold
  repeat with b = 1 to myCount
    put "," & a+b after hold
  end repeat
  return hold
end rangeList