Already know how to show specific character.
table {"abc"}
return string.sub(table[1], 2, 2)
b
But want to replace 1 specific character inside the table without changing whole string.
table = {"abc"}
to
table = {"axc"}
In Lua, strings are strictly immutable, so they cannot be changed, per se.
As such, the only way to accomplish this is to create a new string with the content you want and insert it in table[1]. Whether or not the string is inside a table does not matter.
This would be accomplished, for example, by taking the beginning and end of the string and concatenating them with the new part:
local index = 2 -- The character we want to change
table[1] = string.sub(table[1], 1, index - 1) .. "x" .. string.sub(table[1], index + 1, -1)
This would extract all characters from the beginning of the string until the character before the one we wish to "replace", append the new character, then append the rest of the old string not including the character we "replaced".
In most cases, however, it is not very well-advised to play with single characters like this, as Lua has reasonably powerful pattern-matching and replacement facilities such as string.gsub, which allows you to replace even more complex substrings with ease. (Usage example from Programming in Lua available here)
Related
I want to be able to copy and paste a large string of words from say a text document where there are spaces, returns and not commas between each and every word. Then i want to be able to take out each word individually and put them in a table for example...
input:
please i need help
output:
{1, "please"},
{2, "i"},
{3, "need"},
{4, "help"}
(i will have the table already made with the second column set to like " ")
havent tried anything yet as nothing has come to mind and all i could think of was using gsub to turn spaces into commas and find a solution from there but again i dont think that would work out so well.
Your delimiters are spaces ( ), commas (,) and newlines (\n, sometimes \r\n or \r, the latter very rarely). You now want to find words delimited by these delimiters. A word is a sequence of one or more non-delimiter characters. This trivially translates to a Lua pattern which can be fed into gmatch. Paired with a loop & inserting the matches in a table you get the following:
local words = {}
for word in input:gmatch"[^ ,\r\n]+" do
table.insert(words, word)
end
if you know that your words are gonna be in your locale-specific character set (usually ASCII or extended ASCII), you can use Lua's %w character class for matching sequences of alphanumeric characters:
local words = {}
for word in input:gmatch"%w+" do
table.insert(words, word)
end
Note: The resulting table will be in "list" form:
{
[1] = "first",
[2] = "second",
[3] = "third",
}
(for which {"first", "second", "third"} would be shorthand)
I don't see any good reasons for the table format you have described, but it can be trivially created by inserting tables instead of strings into the list.
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 "
Luas string.format is pretty straight forward, if you know what to format.
However, I stuck at writing a function which takes a wildcard-string to format, and a variable number of arguments to put into that blank string.
Example:
str = " %5s %3s %6s %6s",
val = {"ttyS1", "232", "9600", "230400"}
Formatting that by hand is pretty easy:
string.format( str, val[1], val[2], val[3], val[4] )
Which is the same as:
string.format(" %5s %3s %6s %6s", "ttyS1, "232", "9600","230400")
But what if I wan't to have a fifth or sixth argument?
For example:
string.format(" %1s %2s %3s %4s %5s %6s %7s %", ... )
How can I implement a string.format with an variable number of arguments?
I want to avoid appending the values one by one because of performance issues.
The application runs on embedded MCUs.
Generate arbitrary number of repeats of whatever format you want with string.rep if format is the same for all arguments. Or fill table with all formats and use table.concat. Remember that you don't need to specify index of argument in format if you don't want to reorder them.
If you just need to concatenate strings together separated by space, use more suitable tool: table.concat(table_of_strings, ' ').
You can create a table using varargs:
function foo(fmt, ...)
local t = {...}
return t[6] -- might be nil
end
Ps, don't use # on the table if you expect the argument list might contain nil. Instead use select("#", ...).
I have read a multiline file and converted it to a list with the following code:
Lines = string:tokens(erlang:binary_to_list(Binary), "\n"),
I converted it to a string to do some work on it:
Flat = string:join(Lines, "\r\n"),
I finished working on the string and now I need to convert it back to a multiline list, I tried to repeat the first snippet shown above but that never worked, I tried string:join and that didnt work.. how do i convert it back to a list just like it used to be (although now modified)?
Well that depends on the modifications you made on the flattened string.
string:tokens/2 will always explode a string using the separator you provide. So as long as your transformation preserves a specific string as separator between the individual substrings there should be no problem.
However, if you do something more elaborate and destructive in your transformation then the only way is to iterate on the string manually and construct the individual substrings.
Your first snippet above contains a call to erlang:binary_to_list/1 which first converts a binary to a string (list) which you then split with the call to string:tokens/2 which then join together with string:join/2. The result of doing the tokens then join as you have written it seems to be to convert it from a string containing lines separated by \n into one containing lines separated by \r\n. N.B. that this is a flat list of characters.
Is this what you intended?
What you should do now depends on what you mean by "I need to convert it back to a multiline list". Do you mean everything in a single list of characters (string), or in a nested list of lines where each line is a list of characters (string). I.e. if you ended up with
"here is line 1\r\nhere is line 2\r\nhere is line 3\r\n"
this already is a multiline line list, or do you mean
["here is line 1","here is line 2","here is line 3"]
Note that each "string" is itself a list of characters. What do you intend to do with it afterwards?
You have your terms confused. A string in any language is a sequence of integer values corresponding to a human-readable characters. Whether the representation of the value is a binary or a list does not matter, both are technically strings because of the data they contain.
That being said, you converted a binary string to a list string in your first set of instructions. To convert a list into a binary, you can call erlang:list_to_binary/1, or erlang:iolist_to_binary/1 if your list is not flat. For instance:
BinString = <<"this\nis\na\nstring">>.
ListString = "this\nis\na\nstring" = binary_to_list(BinString).
Words = ["this", "is", "a", "string"] = string:tokens(ListString, "\n").
<<"thisisastring">> = iolist_to_binary(Words).
Rejoined = "this\r\nis\r\na\r\nstring" = string:join(Words, "\r\n").
BinAgain = <<"this\r\nis\r\na\r\nstring">> = list_to_binary(Rejoined).
For your reference, the string module always expects a flat list (e.g., "this is a string", but not ["this", "is", "a", "string"]), except for string:join, which takes a list of flat strings.