String pattern help?
Just wondering, how could i conduct a string pattern that captures every 5 characters in a string (no matter that they are)? I know getting every character in a string is done like this:
for c in string.gmatch("hello*world*", ".") do
print(c)
end
-- h
-- e
-- l
-- l
-- o
-- *
-- w
-- ...
But how would i make it so it would split the string every 5 characters? Including all kinds, like spaces, symbols, ect. So the output from above would instead look something like this:
-- hello -- (cut at 5) -- *worl -- (cut at next 5) -- d* -- (cut from last 5, to end)
If someone knows how this could work, and is willing to share, I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks.
1 answer
Use the . character. This character in a string pattern represents any character.
Your pattern would therefore be ..... (five . characters).
local phrase = "hello*world*"
for match in phrase:gmatch(".....") do
print(match)
end
However, this does not get the last portion. You will have to retrieve that with the sub method. A simple formula is to subtract the remainder of the phrase, add one, and start the substring from there. You can do this with the modulus operator %.
print(phrase:sub(#phrase - #phrase%5 + 1))
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