Can't get a comparison between a folder name and a string to work

Wow, many thanks to you all for helping me out so quickly !

I really had quite an error in my logic there when comparing the strings.. all your solutions work great!

@Dan Ebberts: I'm working on MacOSX in AE5.5. You tested the script with only empty, numbered layer-folders in your project-panel, right? Because I now can't think of any other solution the script might have worked before..

@chauffeurdevan: very nifty!

This should work nicely.

for (var i=1; i<=app.project.numItems; i++){

    if ((app.project.item(i) instanceof FolderItem) && (new RegExp(/^layer\d+/).test(app.project.item(i).name))){

        alert("found folder = " + app.project.item(i).name);

    }

}

I just tried the code and it only alerted once for me. The issue with your code is that it requires the "Layer" named folders to always be the first x items in the project file. So what is happening for you is that...

If any item appears before the first "Layer" folder then you are effectively comparing random names to each other that will never match.

ItemSomethingElse

RandomFolder                 == Layer1     (false)

Layer1                              == Layer2     (false)

Layer2                              == Layer3     (false)

Layer3                              == Layer4     (false)

Layer4                              == Layer5     (false)

ItemSomethingElse

What you need to do to keep it dynamic:

1) Gather instances of all the folders in your project into an array.

2) Loop through that array checking for indexOf "Layer".

3) If there is a match...

4) Compare that name in another loop. You'll have to determine the max number to loop through for your search, like 25 or 50 or something that won't loop forever.

5) If a Layer# match is found then run your alert.

ItemSomethingElse

RandomFolder                 indexOf("Layer")     (false, do not add)

Layer1                              indexOf("Layer")     (true, add instance to folderArray)

Layer2                              indexOf("Layer")     (true, add instance to folderArray)

Layer3                              indexOf("Layer")     (true, add instance to folderArray)

Layer4                              indexOf("Layer")     (true, add instance to folderArray)

ItemSomethingElse

So something like this should work:

//———————————————

var folderArray = new Array();

//Loop through project grabbing folders with layer in the name

for (var i=1; i<=app.project.numItems; i++){

     var curItem = app.project.item(i);

     if(curItem instanceof FolderItem && curItem.name.indexOf("layer") != (-1)){

          folderArray[folderArray.length] = curItem;

    }

}

//Set cap for number appended to "layer"

var cap = 25;

var curName;

var folderArrayLength = folderArray.length;

//Loop through new "layer" array

for(var l=0; l<folderArrayLength; l++){

     for(var c=1; c<cap; c++){

          //Dynamic name

          curName = "layer"+c.toString();

          //Current folder name

          folderName = folderArray.name;

          //Compare them, alert if the match

          if(folderName == curName){

               alert("found folder = " + folderArray.name);

               break;//End comparison once found

          }

     }

}

It works for me on CS6 Windows. What's your platform?

DAn