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A.3.3 Keywords and Values

This function takes an Org file name and optionally a directory (otherwise it uses the default directory) and returns the value of a keyword. It does not use a parse tree, but rather loops through the file line-by-line until it finds the keyword and then returns its value.

(defun get-keyword-value (keyword-to-get org-file-name &optional dir)
  "Returns the value of a keyword in an Org buffer identified by ORG-FILE-NAME.
Uses the current directory unless an optional DIR is supplied.
Returns NIL if none is found.  Rather than parsing the whole Org
buffer into a tree, this function simply starts at the beginning
of the file and loops line by line through the file, returning
when the key has been found or it reaches the end of the file."
  (with-current-buffer
      (find-file-noselect
       (concat
        (if dir (file-name-as-directory dir) default-directory)
        org-file-name))
    (save-excursion
      (goto-char (point-min))
      (let ((done nil)
            (ans nil))
        (while (not done)
          (let* ((el (org-element-at-point))
                 (ty (org-element-type el))
                 (key (org-element-property :key el))
                 (val (org-element-property :value el)))
            (when (and
                   (string-equal ty "keyword")
                   (string-equal key keyword-to-get))
              (setq ans val done t))
            (forward-line)
            (when (eobp)
              (setq done t))))
        ans))))
(defun get-title-for-org-buffer (org-file-name &optional dir)
"A wrapper around `get-keyword-value' to find a TITLE in an Org buffer."
  (get-keyword-value "TITLE" org-file-name dir))