function rangeExtract nums
    local prevNum, znums, rangedNums
    set itemDelimiter to ", "
    put the first item of nums into prevNum
    repeat for each item n in nums
        if n is (prevNum + 1) then
            put n into prevNum
            put "#" & n after znums
        else
            put n into prevNum
            put return & n after znums
        end if
    end repeat
    set itemDelimiter to "#"
    repeat for each line z in znums
        if z is empty then next repeat
        switch the number of items of z
            case 1
                put z & "," after rangedNums
                break
            case 2
                put item 1 of z & "," & item -1 of z & "," after rangedNums
                break
            default
                put item 1 of z & "-" & item -1 of z & "," after rangedNums
        end switch
    end repeat
    return char 1 to -2 of rangedNums  --strip off trailing comma
end rangeExtract