Check/Create Guides If They Don't Exist - Photoshop Scripting

[wckdtall]

I created a script that creates guides in the current document, the problem was if you don't check to see if they exist first, it'll keep making the same guide over and over again. Was trying to use switch cases, for logic on horizontal vs vertical, and may have gotten a bit too verbose, looping through multiple arrays.

Is there a more straight forward way to accomplish checking the document for guides and creating if they don't exist?

function psGuideCheck(guideToCheck, gDir) {
    var aDG = app.activeDocument.guides;
    var gResult = false;
    if (aDG.length > 0) {
        for (var i = 0; i < aDG.length; i++) {
            if (guideToCheck == Math.round(aDG[i].coordinate.as('px')) && gDir == aDG[i].direction) {
                var gResult = true;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return gResult;
}
function psCreateGuides(cropLeft, cropTop, cropRight, cropBottom) {
    var actDocG = app.activeDocument.guides;
    var yLoc = [Math.round(cropTop), Math.round(cropBottom)];
    var xLoc = [Math.round(cropLeft), Math.round(cropRight)];
    var yDir = Direction.HORIZONTAL;
    var xDir = Direction.VERTICAL;
//Loop Through Horizontal guides
    for (var i = 0; i < yLoc.length; i++) {
        var yPxGd = UnitValue(yLoc[i], "px").as('px'); //converts to the right value, and removes " px" from the end
        if (psGuideCheck(yPxGd,yDir) == false) actDocG.add(yDir, UnitValue(yLoc[i], "px"));
    }
//Loop Through Vertical Guides
    for (var i = 0; i < xLoc.length; i++) {
        var xPxGd = UnitValue(xLoc[i], "px").as('px'); //converts to the right value, and removes " px" from the end
        if (psGuideCheck(xPxGd,xDir) == false) actDocG.add(xDir, UnitValue(xLoc[i], "px"));
    }
}
psCreateGuides(-75, -75, 75, 75);

[c.pfaffenbichler]

You could test if this runs quicker. 

edited

// 2024, use at your own risk;
var myDocument = activeDocument;
var theGuides = myDocument.guides;
var newGuides = [[Direction.VERTICAL, -75], [Direction.HORIZONTAL, -75], [Direction.VERTICAL, 75], [Direction.HORIZONTAL, 75]];
for (var x = newGuides.length-1; x >= 0; x--) {
    var theCheck = false;
    var theCount = theGuides.length-1;
    while (theCheck == false && theCount >= 0) {
        if (theGuides[theCount].direction == newGuides[x][0] &&  Number(theGuides[theCount].coordinate) == newGuides[x][1]) {
            newGuides.splice(x,1);
            theCheck = true
        };
        theCount--
    }
};
for (var n = 0; n < newGuides.length; n++) {
    myDocument.guides.add(newGuides[n][0], UnitValue(newGuides[n][1], "px"))
};

[c.pfaffenbichler]

This should be slightly quicker, using AM-code would probably speed it up a bit more.

// 2024, use at your own risk;
if (app.documents.length > 0) {
var myDocument = activeDocument;
var theGuides = myDocument.guides;
var theString = new String;
for (var n = 0; n < myDocument.guides.length; n++) {
    theString = theString+"\n"+String(theGuides[n].direction)+", "+String(Number(theGuides[n].coordinate))
};
var newGuides = [[Direction.VERTICAL, -75], [Direction.HORIZONTAL, -75], [Direction.VERTICAL, 75], [Direction.HORIZONTAL, 75]];
for (var x = newGuides.length-1; x >= 0; x--) {
    if (theString.match(newGuides[x][0]+", "+newGuides[x][1]) == null) {
        myDocument.guides.add(newGuides[x][0], UnitValue(newGuides[x][1], "px"))
    }
};
};

[wckdtall]

Thanks! I wanted to see if I could do it with AM, but I'm not sure how to create a function that would return a true false for existing guides.

[Lumigraphics]

var g = app.activeDocument.guides;
for(var i = 0; i < g.length; i++){
   Window.alert(g[i].direction + g[i].coordinate);
   }

I'd probably sort by direction then coordinate and see if any of my new guides matched.

[wckdtall]

So simple, match and using one stored string makes a lot of sense since I'm just looking for duplicates, and it's still being very specific what to look for on creation. My mind always jumps to non existent extendscript functions like in_array,  but this accomplishes the same with the tools given. Thanks!

[r-bin]

guides.removeAll()

Then create the four you need.