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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText>OK, after a lot of head-scratching I figured it out. The script below appends a new staff to the bottom of a score, then moves the new staff to the top of the score. It is just a proof of concept and only processes the staff order in Scroll View. I am now working on Page View which should be similar except that (as I understand it) all the System Staves haves to be processed, using a loop. The index starts at 1 (0 is Scroll View).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>At one point I needed to store the absolute value of an element in a Lua table, and then break the pointer to the table because the table was going to change later and I needed the original value preserved. The only way I could find was to load that table value into a variable, and then … destroy the table. Silly, because I needed that table, so I had to create it again immediately after extracting the “unchangeable value” of the element.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>There must be a much better way, although of course this is a Lua language question and has nothing to do with JW Lua per se. I have read the chapter about tables in manual (“Programming in Lua”) but did not obtain enlightenment.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Anyway, this code works, and that’s what matters.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>==============<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--append a new staff to the bottom of the score<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local staffID = finale.FCStaves.Append()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local staff = finale.FCStaff()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>staff:Load(staffID)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>staff.InstrumentUUID = finale.FFUUID_BLANKSTAFF<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local strName =finale.FCString()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>strName.LuaString="NEW STAFF"<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>staff:SaveNewFullNameString (strName)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local strAbrev =finale.FCString()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>strAbrev.LuaString="N. STF."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>staff:SaveNewAbbreviatedNameString (strAbrev)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>staff:Save()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--store the value of the top staff prior to re-ordering the staves</span><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local sysstaff_table = {}<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local sysstaves= finale.FCSystemStaves()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>sysstaves:LoadScrollView()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>for sysstaff in each(sysstaves) do<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> table.insert(sysstaff_table, sysstaff)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>end<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>bottom_staff = sysstaff_table[#sysstaff_table]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>sysstaff_table = nil </span><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>-- the only way I can find to break the pointer to the table is to destroy the table!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--which means the same table must now be laboriously re-created anew....<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local sysstaff_table = {}<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>local sysstaves= finale.FCSystemStaves()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>sysstaves:LoadScrollView()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>for sysstaff in each(sysstaves) do<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> table.insert(sysstaff_table, sysstaff)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>end<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--move each staff down by one staff<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>for i = #sysstaff_table, 1, -1 do<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> sysstaff = sysstaff_table[i]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> next_sysstaff = sysstaff_table[i-1]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> if next_sysstaff then<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> sysstaff.Staff = next_sysstaff.Staff </span><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--process all staves except the top one.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> else<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> sysstaff.Staff = bottom_staff.Staff </span><span style='color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#548235;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>--replace value of top staff with value of the appended staff<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'> end<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>end<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'>sysstaves:SaveAll()<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#C55A11;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>=======<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Martin<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>