AppleScript: How to extract numbers from a string? - applescript

Question

I am writing a script to go to the NYT website on Corona, get the US data, extract numbers (total, death), and to send me a notification. I am close, but when I extract numbers and display them, they are put together (ie 700021 instead of 7000,21). My question is:
How do I extract the numbers so that they are delineated?
Here is the code:
set theURL to "https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storyline_menu"
tell application "Safari" to make new document with properties {URL:theURL}
tell application "System Events"
repeat until exists (UI elements of groups of toolbar 1 of window 1 of application process "Safari" whose name = "Reload this page")
delay 0.5
end repeat
end tell
to getInputByClass(theClass, num)
tell application "Safari"
set input to do JavaScript "
document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClass & "')[" & num & "].innerText;" in document 1
end tell
return input
end getInputByClass
set myVar to getInputByClass("g-body ", 5)
on returnNumbersInString(inputString)
set s to quoted form of inputString
do shell script "sed s/[a-zA-Z\\']//g <<< " & s
set dx to the result
set numlist to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count of words in dx
set this_item to word i of dx
try
set this_item to this_item as number
set the end of numlist to this_item
end try
end repeat
return numlist
end returnNumbersInString
set theNums to returnNumbersInString(myVar) as text
display notification "COVID-19 UPDATE" subtitle theNums sound name "glass"
tell application "Safari"
close its front window
end tell

Answer 1

You are getting a list of numbers from the returnNumbersInString handler, but just coercing the list to text doesn't normally provide any kind of formatting. One solution would be to use text item delimiters to specify the text to use when joining the list items. For example, when converting to text for the notification you could do something like:
set tempTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ", "
set theNums to returnNumbersInString(myVar) as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tempTID

Answer 2

Similar to your other question I helped you with, the target data is already in a table and as such I'd use the table data to get the information as its structure layout is not likely to change where target 'g-body ' of 5 may not always be the United States.
I get my data a little different way:
set theURL to "https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storyline_menu"
tell application "Safari" to make new document with properties {URL:theURL}
tell application "System Events"
repeat until exists ¬
(UI elements of groups of toolbar 1 of window 1 of ¬
application process "Safari" whose name = "Reload this page")
delay 0.5
end repeat
end tell
tell application "Safari" to tell document 1 to set CountriesTable to ¬
do JavaScript "document.getElementsByClassName('svelte-f9sygj')[0].innerText;"
tell application "Safari" to close its front window
set awkCommand to ¬
"awk '/United States/{print $3,\"Cases &\",$4,\"Deaths\"}'"
set notificationMessage to ¬
do shell script awkCommand & "<<<" & CountriesTable's quoted form
display notification notificationMessage subtitle "US COVID-19 UPDATE" sound name "glass"
NOTE: The code used to determine when the page in Safari has finished loading works in macOS Mojave and later, however, for macOS High Sierra and some earlier versions, add the words buttons of in front of UI elements ... in the repeat until exists ¬ ... code.
Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.