I need to encapsulate in some way pattern in lua pattern matching to find whole sequence of this pattern in string. What do I mean by that.
For example we have string like that:
"word1,word2,word3,,word4,word5,word6, word7,"
I need to match first sequence of words followed by coma (word1,word2,word3,)
In python I would use this pattern "(\w+,)+", but similar pattern in lua (like (%w+,)+), will return just nil, because brackets in lua patterns means completely different thing.
I hope now you see my problem.
Is there a way to do repeating patterns in lua?
Your example wasn't too clear in terms of what should happen to the word4,word5,word6 and word7,
This would give you any seqence of comma separated words without white space or empty positions.
local text = "word1,word2,word3,,word4,word5,word6, word7,"
-- replace any comma followed by any white space or comma
--- by a comma and a single white space
text = text:gsub(",[%s,]+", ", ")
-- then match any sequence of >=1 non-whitespace characters
for sequence in text:gmatch("%S+,") do
print(sequence)
end
Prints
word1,word2,word3,
word4,word5,word6,
word7,
You could do this easily using LPeg if that's available to you:
local lpeg = require "lpeg"
local str = "word1,word2,word3,,word4,word5,word6, word7,"
local word = (lpeg.R"az"+lpeg.R"AZ"+lpeg.R"09") ^ 1
local sequence = lpeg.C((word * ",") ^1)
print(sequence:match(str))
Related
how can I extract a few words separated by symbols in a string so that nothing is extracted if the symbols change?
for example I wrote this code:
function split(str)
result = {};
for match in string.gmatch(str, "[^%<%|:%,%FS:%>,%s]+" ) do
table.insert(result, match);
end
return result
end
--------------------------Example--------------------------------------------
str = "<busy|MPos:-750.222,900.853,1450.808|FS:2,10>"
my_status={}
status=split(str)
for key, value in pairs(status) do
table.insert(my_status,value)
end
print(my_status[1]) --
print(my_status[2]) --
print(my_status[3]) --
print(my_status[4]) --
print(my_status[5]) --
print(my_status[6]) --
print(my_status[7]) --
output :
busy
MPos
-750.222
900.853
1450.808
2
10
This code works fine, but if the characters and text in the str string change, the extraction is still done, which I do not want to be.
If the string change to
str = "Hello stack overFlow"
Output:
Hello
stack
over
low
nil
nil
nil
In other words, I only want to extract if the string is in this format: "<busy|MPos:-750.222,900.853,1450.808|FS:2,10>"
In lua patterns, you can use captures, which are perfect for things like this. I use something like the following:
--------------------------Example--------------------------------------------
str = "<busy|MPos:-750.222,900.853,1450.808|FS:2,10>"
local status, mpos1, mpos2, mpos3, fs1, fs2 = string.match(str, "%<(%w+)%|MPos:(%--%d+%.%d+),(%--%d+%.%d+),(%--%d+%.%d+)%|FS:(%d+),(%d+)%>")
print(status, mpos1, mpos2, mpos3, fs1, fs2)
I use string.match, not string.gmatch here, because we don't have an arbitrary number of entries (if that is the case, you have to have a different approach). Let's break down the pattern: All captures are surrounded by parantheses () and get returned, so there are as many return values as captures. The individual captures are:
the status flag (or whatever that is): busy is a simple word, so we can use the %w character class (alphanumeric characters, maybe %a, only letters would also do). Then apply the + operator (you already know that one). The + is within the capture
the three numbers for the MPos entry each get (%--%d+%.%d+), which looks weird at first. I use % in front of any non-alphanumeric character, since it turns all magic characters (such as + into normal ones). - is a magic character, so it is required here to match a literal -, but lua allows to put that in front of any non-alphanumerical character, which I do. So the minus is optional, so the capture starts with %-- which is one or zero repetitions (- operator) of a literal - (%-). Then I just match two integers separated by a dot (%d is a digit, %. matches a literal dot). We do this three times, separated by a comma (which I don't escape since I'm sure it is not a magical character).
the last entry (FS) works practically the same as the MPos entry
all entries are separated by |, which I simply match with %|
So putting it together:
start of string: %<
status field: (%w+)
separator: %|
MPos (three numbers): MPos:(%--%d+%.%d+),(%--%d+%.%d+),(%--%d+%.%d+)
separator: %|
FS entry (two integers): FS:(%d+),(%d+)
end of string: %>
With this approach you have the data in local variables with sensible names, which you can then put into a table (for example).
If the match failes (for instance, when you use "Hello stack overFlow"), nil` is returned, which can simply be checked for (you could check any of the local variables, but it is common to check the first one.
I have been trying to find all possible strings in between 2 strings
This is my input: "print/// to be able to put any amount of strings here endprint///"
The goal is to print every string in between print/// and endprint///
You can use Lua's string patterns to achieve that.
local text = "print/// to be able to put any amount of strings here endprint///"
print(text:match("print///(.*)endprint///"))
The pattern "print///(.*)endprint///" captures any character that is between "print///" and "endprint///"
Lua string patterns here
In this kind of problem, you don't use the greedy quantifiers * or +, instead, you use the lazy quantifier -. This is because * matches until the last occurrence of the sub-pattern after it, while - matches until the first occurence of the sub-pattern after it. So, you should use this pattern:
print///(.-)endprint///
And to match it in Lua, you do this:
local text = "print/// to be able to put any amount of strings here endprint///"
local match = text:match("print///(.-)endprint///")
-- `match` should now be the text in-between.
print(match) -- "to be able to put any amount of strings here "
I'm trying to match any strings that come in that follow the format Word 100.00% ~(45.56, 34.76) in LUA. As such, I'm looking to do a regex close (in theory) to this:
%D%s[%d%.%d]%%(%d.%d, %d.%d)
But I'm having no luck so far. LUA's patterns are weird.
What am I missing?
Your pattern is close you neglected to allow for multiple instances of a digit you can do this by using a + at like %d+.
You also did not use [,( and . correctly in the pattern.
[s in a pattern will create a set of chars that you are trying to match such as [abc] means you are looking to match any as bs or c at that position.
( are used to define a capture so the specific values you want returned rather then the whole string in the event of a match, in order to use it as a char you for the match you need to escape it with a %.
. will match any character rather then specifically a . you will need to add a % to escape if you want to match a . specifically.
local str = "Word 100.00% ~(45.56, 34.76)"
local pattern = "%w+%s%d+%.%d+%%%s~%(%d+%.%d+, %d+%.%d+%)"
print(string.match(str, pattern))
Here you will see the input string print if it matches the pattern otherwise you will see nil.
Suggested resource: Understanding Lua Patterns
I am trying to split this statement in Lua
sendex,000D6F0011BA2D60,fb,btn,1,on,100,null
i need output like this way:
Mac:000D6F0011BA2D60
Value:1
command:on
value:100
how to split and get the values?
local input = "sendex,000D6F0011BA2D60,fb,btn,1,on,100,null"
local buffer = {}
for word in input:gmatch('[^,]+') do
table.insert(buffer, word)
--print(word) -- uncomment this to see the words as they are being matched ;)
end
print("Mac:"..buffer[2])
print("Value:"..buffer[5])
...
For a complete explanation of what string.gmatch does, see the Lua reference. To summarize, it iterates over a string and searches for a pattern, in this case [^,]+, meaning all groups of 1 or more characters that aren't a comma. Every time it finds said pattern, it does something with it and continues searching.
If your input is exactly like you have described, the code below works:
s="sendex,000D6F0011BA2D60,fb,btn,1,on,100,null"
Mac,Value,command,value = s:match(".-,(.-),.-,.-,(.-),(.-),(.-),")
print(Mac,Value,command,value)
It uses the non-greedy pattern .- to split the input into fields. It also captures the relevant fields.
Currently I have code that looks like this:
somestring = "param=valueZ&456"
local stringToPrint = (somestring):gsub("(param=)[^&]+", "%1hello", 1)
StringToPrint will look like this:
param=hello&456
I have replaced all of the characters before the & with the string "hello". This is where my question becomes a little strange and specific.
I want my string to appear as: param=helloZ&456. In other words, I want to preserve the character right before the & when replacing the string valueZ with hello to make it helloZ instead. How can this be done?
I suggest:
somestring:gsub("param=[^&]*([^&])", "param=hello%1", 1)
See the Lua demo
Here, the pattern matches:
param= - literal substring param=
[^&]* - 0 or more chars other than & as many as possible
([^&]) - Group 1 capturing a symbol other than & (here, backtracking will occur, as the previous pattern grabs all such chars other than & and then the engine will take a step back and place the last char from that chunk into Group 1).
There are probably other ways to do this, but here is one:
somestring = "param=valueZ&456"
local stringToPrint = (somestring):gsub("(param=).-([^&]&)", "%1hello%2", 1)
print(stringToPrint)
The thing here is that I match the shortest string that ends with a character that is not & and a character that is &. Then I add the two ending characters to the replaced part.