need to return "\" not "\\" in applescript to build bash command - bash

Question

Thanks for the help.
I'm trying to build a series of bash commands using Applescript. My problem is applescript using \ as an escape character. so when it returns my strings its returning \\ not \ as needed. Has anyone found a way to return a string with a single \?
Also, previous help I've received on this people will say "if you display dialog it will say \ not \\" which is correct however I'm not attempting to display text I need to pass these strings on to bash.
--get all the finder info
tell application "Finder"
set selCnt to selection as list
if (count of items in selCnt) is equal to 1 then
set theDir to the selection as alias
set theDir to POSIX path of theDir
else if ((count of items in selCnt) is greater than 1) then
display dialog "Please select only one directory. ie: 'Documents'"
else if (count of items in selCnt) is equal to 0 then
set theDir to target of window 1 as alias
set theDir to POSIX path of theDir
else
display dialog "What do you think you're doing?"
end if
end tell
--rename strings with spaces
set t to theDir
set t to tid(t, " ") -- converts to a list of text items
set t to tid(t, "\\ ") -- converts back to tex a list odf text items
on tid(input, delim)
set {oldTID, my text item delimiters} to {my text item delimiters, delim}
if class of input is list then
set outputA to input as text
else
set outputA to text items of input
end if
set my text item delimiters to oldTID
return outputA
end tid
set theDir to result
--strings setup
set cdStr to "cd " & theDir
set stringA to ".doc"
set stringB to "\\"
set delDoc to "find . -name " & quoted form of stringA & " -exec rm {} " & stringB & ":"
set stringA to ".exl"
set stringB to "\\"
set delExl to "find . -name " & quoted form of stringA & " -exec rm {} " & stringB & ":"
--execute shell scripts
set theCmd to cdStr & return & delDoc & return & delExl
return theCmd
(*
do shell script cdStr
do shell script delExl
do shell script delDoc
*)

Answer 1

You simply need to escape a backslash with a backslash to pass on that string.
set foo to "\\"
will set foo to a single "\". You can verify this using any of the following:
display dialog foo
log foo
return foo
do shell script "echo \\$foo"
Run this last command, and it returns "$foo", proving that the shell command correctly received a single slash, which in this instance tells the shell command to ignore the special significance of $. If it had sent two slashes to the shell command, you would've gotten an error, or possibly a literal slash.
You can psych yourself out by getting confused by your editor's display of "\", but the results end up working.
You don't state in your question what is making you think it's not behaving correctly. What does "it freaks out" mean?

Answer 2

I was able to figure everything out using bash commands mostly. Then I was able to create a service which ran when i hit a certain key set like "cmd + option + R." All the user has to do is select the folder and hit the keys and the program will erase all of the files with the specific extension. step 2 from my notes below allow bash to recognize the source which is determined by the first open window of Finder.
Again sorry for all the formatting trouble this is only my second ever post in stackoverflow
first modify the .bash_profile. Open it via terminal
open ~/.bash_profile -a TextEdit
copy and past script into the txt file then save. This allows you to now issue a command “cdf”
cdf () {
theFinderPath=osascript <<END
tell application "Finder"
try
set thePath to get the POSIX path of (folder of the front window as string)
on error
set thePath to get the POSIX path of (path to desktop folder as string)
end try
end tell
END
cd "$theFinderPath";
}
rewrite script to include new command and then save this to the root of your “Documents” folder.
3.
! /bin/bash
cd to the path of the front Finder window
cdf
find . -name ‘.doc’ -exec rm {} \; #deletes all doc files
find . -name ‘.exe’ -exec rm {} \; #deletes all exe files
Now using Automator you can write a simple code that will issue this command from a keystroke.
bash -x /Users/username/Documents/sh/script.sh || true