Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> We've all written this a million times:
>
> (let* ((choices (mapcar (lambda (elt)
> 			  (cons (make-string-from-thing elt)
> 				elt))
> 			my-list-of-things))
>        (choice (completing-read "Choose: "
> 				choices)))
>   (cdr (assoc-string choice choices)))

Sorry, I didn't follow the whole thread (too long), here some Helm
features you may not be aware of:


(helm-comp-read "test: " '(("un" . 1) ("deux" . 2) ("trois" . 3)))
=> 1
(helm-comp-read "test: " '(("un" . 1) ("deux" . 2) ("trois" . 3)) :alistp nil)
=> "un"
(helm-comp-read "test: " '(("un" . 1) ("deux" . 2) ("trois" . 3)) :marked-candidates t)
=> (1)
(helm-comp-read "test: " '(("un" . 1) ("deux" . 2) ("trois" . 3)) :marked-candidates t :alistp nil)
=> ("un")

Hope that helps.

-- 
Thierry