Applescript: trim spaces and return line - random

Question

I wrote an AppleScript that returns a random string from a text file delineated by commas:
set some_file to "Macintosh HD:Users:Zade:Library:Application Support:Notational Data:Words.txt" as alias
set the_text to read some_file as string
set the text item delimiters of AppleScript to ", "
set the_lines to (every text item of the_text)
return some item of the_lines
But I now have a text file delineated by new lines instead of commas. And each line begins with anywhere from 0-20 spaces. I want to return just the text portion of a random line. How do I do this?
Also, if the text portion is surrounded by plain (not curly) quotes, how can I trim the quotes?

Answer 1

The following script will handle the additional requirements from your comments, and includes statements to trim characters from the beginning and ending of the string. It excludes the first 27 lines read from the file and will repeatedly get and trim random lines from the list until the final result is not empty.
set theFile to (choose file)
set theLines to paragraphs 28 thru -1 of (read theFile)
repeat -- forever
set someLine to some item of theLines
-- trim characters at the start
if someLine is not "" then repeat until the first character of someLine is not in {space, tab, quote}
if (count someLine) is 1 then
set someLine to ""
exit repeat
end if
set someLine to text 2 thru -1 of someLine
end repeat
-- trim characters at the end
if someLine is not "" then repeat until the last character of someLine is not in {quote}
if (count someLine) is 1 then
set someLine to ""
exit repeat
end if
set someLine to text 1 thru -2 of someLine
end repeat
if someLine is not "" then exit repeat
end repeat
return someLine

Answer 2

Here is what I use to trim spaces from both ends of a string
on trimWhiteSpace(aString)
if aString is not "" then
-- setup for no delimiter
set savedTextItemDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
-- start with the tail end by revering the list
set these_items to reverse of (every text item of aString)
-- keep peeling off 1st space
repeat while item 1 of these_items is space
set these_items to rest of these_items
end repeat
-- flip the list, now do the leading characters
set these_items to reverse of these_items
repeat while item 1 of these_items is space
set these_items to rest of these_items
end repeat
-- reconstruct the string
set these_items to these_items as string
-- restore and return
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to savedTextItemDelimiters
return these_items
end if
end trimWhiteSpace

Answer 3

Change the comma and space in the line set the text item delimiters of AppleScript to ", " to return. The new line (no pun intended) looks like this:
set the text item delimiters of AppleScript to return
As for your second question try this:
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return text items 2 thru -2 of some_string
Let's put it all together!
set some_file to "Macintosh HD:Users:Zade:Library:Application Support:Notational Data:Words.txt" as alias
set the_text to read some_file as string
set the_lines to (every paragraph of the_text)
set this_line to some item of the_lines
if this_line is not "" then
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
set this_line to (text items 2 thru -2 of this_line) --remove the quotes
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to space
set these_items to (every text item of this_code)
set the this_line to (item 1 of these_items & this_line)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return this_line
end if
EDIT: You can't stop the program from returning empty lines, but you can filter them out like so...
if paragraph i of some_text is not "" then do_something()