set theURL to “http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=” & company & “&a=” & historymonth & “&b=” & historyday & “&c=” & historyyear & “&d=” & todaymonth & “&e=” & todayday & “&f=” & todayyear & “&g=d&ignore=.csv”

where the variables are previously defined earlier on within the script

My first approach involved changing the dates within the URL however for some reason the .csv still seems to be going back further than the dates (and therefore the address) specified.

The second approach is limiting the number of rows within the table however this returns an error as the n+1 row cannot be written and subsequently returns an error.

Any ideas??

error “Numbers got an error: Can’t make file \”Neuro HD:private:var:folders:vi:vi+3Y6xzEleHTqvVJVM7KU+++TI:TemporaryItems:yahoo-quote.csv\” of sheet 1 of document 1 into type file.” number -1700 from file “Neuro HD:private:var:folders:vi:vi+3Y6xzEleHTqvVJVM7KU+++TI:TemporaryItems:yahoo-quote.csv” of sheet 1 of document 1 to file

I modified the script to the following and it worked just fine for getting the initial data in. I’ve removed all comments for brevity:

set tempFile to ((path to temporary items) as string) & “yahoo-quote.csv”
display dialog “Enter symbol:” default answer “AAPL”
set company to text returned of result
tell application “URL Access Scripting”
set theURL to “http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=” & company & “&a=00&b=1&c=2008&g=d&ignore=.csv”
download theURL to file tempFile
end tell
tell application “Numbers”
activate
open tempFile
end tell
tell application “Finder” to delete file tempFile

But I have a problem with your script, because numbers gets confused with the cell-format and the decimal seperator.

Here is a screenshot of what I get: http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7441/bildschirmfoto20100208ut.png

So stock quotes always have 2 decimals, but the “.” respectively the “,” (we use) is dropped. Furthermore numbers “thinks that values in the format “##.##” must be calendar items and adds the current year after the values.

Can you please give me a hint? This might be because my German version uses “,” as decimal seperator and not “.” how can I fix this?

read file “Macintosh HD:private:var:folders:pD:pD2LGZXXGUihwyJSXnoAxU+++TI:TemporaryItems:yahoo-quote” of sheet 1 of document 1
–> error number -10004

Which can be corrected by telling the “Finder” application instead

– read in the file contents
tell application “Finder”
set quoteLines to paragraphs of (read file tempFile)
end tell

I would love to be able to take this data from multiple stocks and chart it out, especially against an index like the S&P 500.

Anyway, thanks again for this post.