Pass variable into AppleScript from python

Question

Can someone show me how to pass a variable into an Applescript using osascript in python? I've seen some documentation/samples on doing this but I'm not understanding it at all.

Here is my python code:

# I want to pass this value into my apple script below
myPythonVariable = 10
cmd = """
 osascript -e '
 tell application "System Events"
 set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
 if "MyApp" is in activeApp then
 set stepCount to myPythonVariableIPassIn
 repeat with i from 1 to stepCount
 DoStuff...
 end repeat
 end if
 end tell
 '
 """
os.system(cmd)

• Chris: Possible duplicate of: stackoverflow.com/questions/13502836/…
• LampShade: In the solution to that one he's passing in '/Setup.scpt'. I was hoping to inline the applescript code right in my python code rather than having a ton of separate .scpt files I have to manage.

Answer 1

String concatenation with the + operator

myPythonVariable = 10
cmd = """
 osascript -e '
 tell application "System Events"
 set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
 if "MyApp" is in activeApp then
 set stepCount to """ + str(myPythonVariable) + """
 repeat with i from 1 to stepCount
 -- do something
 end repeat
 end if
 end tell
 '
 """

---

Or, string formatting with the {} :

myPythonVariable = 10
cmd = """
 osascript -e '
 tell application "System Events"
 set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
 if "MyApp" is in activeApp then
 set stepCount to {0}
 repeat with i from 1 to stepCount
 -- do something
 end repeat
 end if
 end tell
 '
 """.format(myPythonVariable)

{0} is the place-holder for the first variable, {1} is the place-holder for the second variable, ....

For multiple variables:

.format(myPythonVariable, var2, var3)

---

Or, string formatting with the %s operator

myPythonVariable = 10
cmd = """
 osascript -e '
 tell application "System Events"
 set activeApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
 if "MyApp" is in activeApp then
 set stepCount to %s
 repeat with i from 1 to stepCount
 -- do something
 end repeat
 end if
 end tell
 '
 """ % myPythonVariable

For multiple variables:

% (myPythonVariable, var2, var3)