Task

Remove a specific line or a number of lines from a file.

This should be implemented as a routine that takes three parameters (filename, starting line, and the number of lines to be removed).

For the purpose of this task, line numbers and the number of lines start at one, so to remove the first two lines from the file foobar.txt, the parameters should be: foobar.txt, 1, 2

Empty lines are considered and should still be counted, and if the specified line is empty, it should still be removed.

An appropriate message should appear if an attempt is made to remove lines beyond the end of the file.




removeLines "foobar.txt", 1, 2
to handle removeLines fileName, startingLine, linesToRemove
	If there is no file fileName then
		put !"No such file: [[the folder & fileName]]"
		Return
	End if
	set endingLine to startingLine + linesToRemove - 1
	If endingLine is more than number of lines in file fileName then
		put !"Cannot delete lines past the end of the file ([[number of lines in file fileName]] lines)"
		Return
	End If
	delete lines startingLine to endingLine of file fileName
end removeLines
 