Formatting a table in Lua with string.gsub - lua

Question

The following code formats a table into a printable string, but I feel like this can be done a lot easier.
function printFormat(table)
local str = ""
for key, value in pairs(table) do
if value == 1 then
str = str .. string.gsub(value, 1, "A, ") -- Replaces 1 with A
elseif value == 2 then
str = str .. string.gsub(value, 2, "B, ") -- Replaces 2 with B
elseif value == 3 then
str = str .. string.gsub(value, 3, "C, ") -- Replaces 3 with C
elseif value == 4 then
str = str .. string.gsub(value, 4, "D, ") -- Replaces 4 with D
end
end
str = string.sub(str, 1, #str - 2) -- Removes useless chars at the end (last comma and last whitespace)
str = "<font color=\"#FFFFFF\">" .. str .. "</font>" -- colors the string
print(str)
end
local myTable = {1,4,3,2,3,2,1,3,4,2,2,...}
printFormat(myTable)
Is there a way to use a oneliner instead of having to loop through every index and make changes?
Or make the code more compact?

Answer 1

You can use a helper table to replace the multiple if statement:
local chars = {"A", "B", "C", "D"}
for _, v in ipairs(t) do
str = str .. chars[v] .. ", "
end
Or, if there are more than 1 to 4, try this:
for _, v in ipairs(t) do
str = str .. string.char(string.byte('A') + v) .. ", "
end

Answer 2

Use table.concat.
string.gsub can perform replacement using a replacement table.
Don't use names like table for your own variables.
Therefore:
function printFormat( tInput )
local sReturn = table.concat( tInput, ', ' )
sReturn = sReturn:gsub( '%d', {['1'] = 'A', ...} ) -- update table accordingly
return '<font color="#FFFFFF">' .. str .. "</font>"
end
and, for one liner:
return '<font color="#FFFFFF">' .. ( table.concat(tInput, ', ') ):gsub( '%d', {['1'] = 'A', ...} )