I know for a fact that I've done this the caveperson way. And I'd like to learn how to do it better or differently. Would I would like to do is choose a starting month and a markdown header level and then have the clipboard populate with LEVEL STARTMONTH.
I chose a 12-nested if statement (!). Are there better alternatives? Date math? A different action?
Ultiamtely, I'd like to ALSO choose the number of months. Example: start in october, go three months outputs:
You can use an array variable to hold the months, and then a Repeat loop to build the string. Here's one such solution that seems to work, though I only very lightly tested it.
Download Macro(s): markdown months .kmmacros (6.3 KB)
It allows you to enter the number of months, and I assumed if you chose a value that wrapped around a year-end, you'd want to start over with January again. Run it and it looks like this:
Which generates this output (with the above inputs):
## AUG
## SEP
## OCT
## NOV
## DEC
## JAN
## FEB
Is that what you're trying to achieve?
-rob.
That's it! (I searched for array but couldn't figure it out!). Thank you so much.
I like @griffman's solution. But, for fun, here's one that uses "date math" to both build a list for the prompt and to output the markdown months.
Possible advantages -- it should localise to the user's language and it's easy to change the "display" format in both prompt and final output (eg change MMMM in the %ICUDateTimeFor% token to MMM for short-form month names).
Should also be tidied to stop the repeated "seconds to add to get to the next month" calculations...
Thanks so much, Nige_S! I knew that there would be multiple paths, with multiple strengths. I appreciate your time!
FWIW some elements for doing this kind of thing in an Execute JavaScript for Automation action, perhaps in a subroutine.
This kind of thing can generate month names (long and short form) in whichever locale the system is set in, or in a particular language if the two-letter locale code is given explicitly.
(() => {
"use strict";
const kmvar = {
"local_Two_letter_Locale_Code": "", // e.g. "en", "fr", "de", "it"
"local_Start_Month_Number": 4,
"local_Number_of_months": 9,
"local_Markdown_Heading_Level": 2,
"local_Month_Names_Abbreviated": "" // 1 if true
};
const main = () =>
monthNameSequence(
kmvar.local_Two_letter_Locale_Code
)(
kmvar.local_Start_Month_Number
)(
kmvar.local_Number_of_months
)(
Boolean(kmvar.local_Month_Names_Abbreviated)
)
.map(
asMarkdownHeading(
kmvar.local_Markdown_Heading_Level
)
)
.join("\n");
// monthNameSequence :: String -> Int ->
// Int -> Bool -> [String]
const monthNameSequence = localeName =>
// localeName can be a two-letter string
// If the string is empty or undefined,
// the system locale is used by default.
firstMonthN => monthCount => abbreviated =>
Array.from(
{length: monthCount},
(_, i) => firstMonthN + i
)
.map(iMonth => new Date(0, iMonth - 1)
.toLocaleString(
localeName || undefined,
{
month: abbreviated
? "short"
: "long"
}
)
);
// asMarkdownHeading :: Int -> String -> String
const asMarkdownHeading = n =>
// The given string as Markdown Heading level n
s => `${"#".repeat(n)} ${s}`;
return main();
})();
Do note that mine, as written, will break around the "36 months in advance month" because it only works in 30-day "months". You could make it more resilient by using an offset of 2,629,746 each loop (seconds in a year / 12) but really, unless you are frequently changing language or format, stick with @griffman's version!