How do you Parse this String in Lua "1 2 3 4"? - lua

Question

I am brand new to Lua from a pure VB.Net background. I have a large file of maplines that I need to iterate through. The data is in the form of:
;XX.XXX YY.YYY Name
;
[Airways]
58.50 -12.44 58.21 -13.73
58.21 -13.73 57.89 -15.02
57.89 -15.02 57.54 -16.30
57.54 -16.30 57.17 -17.58
57.17 -17.58 56.76 -18.84
56.76 -18.84 56.33 -20.10
56.33 -20.10 55.87 -21.35
54.33 -25.02 53.77 -26.22
I have tried this but keep getting an error.
local mapLines = {}
local filePath = system.pathForFile( "data.ini", system.DocumentsDirectory )
local file = io.open( filePath, "r" )
if file then
local contents = file:read( "*a" )
--print( "Contents of " .. filePath )
--print( contents )
io.close( file )
local t = display.newText( "Contents of ", 5, 80, nil, 16 );
t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 136, 255 );
local t = display.newText( filePath, 5, 100, nil, 10 );
t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 136, 255 );
local ylast = 130
for line in io.lines(filePath) do
local t = display.newText( line, 15, ylast, nil, 14 );
t:setTextColor( 255, 255, 255 );
ylast = ylast + 20
n = tonumber(line);
if n == nil then
local f = {}
s = "1 2 3 4"
for k, v in string.gmatch(s, "(%w+) (%w+)") do
f[k] = v
end
local myLine = newLine(tonumber(f[1]), tonumber(f[2]), tonumber(f[3]), tonumber(f[4]))
table.insert( mapLines, myLine )
end
end
end
-- Example of shape drawing func
local function newLine(x,y,x1,y1)
-- need initial segment to start
local Line = display.newLine( x, y, x1, y1 )
Line:setColor( 30, 155, 30, 100 )
Line.width = 3
return Line
end
Runtime:addEventListener( "enterFrame", mapLines )
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Dave

Answer 1

answering the question in the topic:
local string_to_parse = '1 2 3 4'
for s in string_to_parse:gmatch('%d+') do
print(s)
end
sample code on codepad