Is there a way to use string.match on one character strings?

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Question

Is there a way to use string.match on one character strings?

What I think you're asking how

Based on this context:

for example, I type "t" it should match up with "to" and "tp" but it doesnt, only when i type "to" will it match with "to" is it possible to fix?

I think you're trying to autocomplete words using the starting character.

Solution

We can use the ^ magic character to look at the start of the string using :match since that would be most useful here. (We could also use sub and get a string of the length of our predicting phrase and see if its equal to that)

We can iterate through all our commands and check if the start of the string matches what we are looking for. If it does then we can add it to an array called matchedCommands or something related to what we are doing. At the end we return the array and we can use that array else where.

Example Code:

local animals = { --// animals array
    "aardvark",
    "crocodile",
    "dog",
    "cat",
    "alligator"
}

local function predictAnimals(predictingPhrase) --// function we are using to get the animals from a word
    local predictedAnimals = {} --// array to store animals we are predicting
    local pattern = ("^%s"):format(predictingPhrase) --// our pattern. Just puts `^` at the start so we are looking at the start of the string. 

    for i, animal in next, animals do --// iterate over animals
        local animalName = animal:lower() --// make it so its not case sensitive

        if animalName:match(pattern) then --// does it start with the word
            predictedAnimals[#predictedAnimals + 1] = animalName --// add to predicted animals array
        end
    end

    return predictedAnimals --// return the array
end

local animalsStartingWithA = predictAnimals("a")

for i, animal in next, animalsStartingWithA  do
    print("starts with a: ", animal)
end

This isn't really a answer so please don't accept it as one, but I wanted to make a search script in the past for some projects to and I made this. Probably inefficient but works great and is less annoying then roblox's search.

--------------------------------------------------
---------------------Settings---------------------
--------------------------------------------------
local searchResults = {
    {"Motor6D", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Motor", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Animating Parts", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Sprint", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"NoJump", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Admin Commands", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Developer Products", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
    {"Search", Vector3.new(0,0,0)}, 
}
--------------------------------------------------
local function seperateWords(words)
    local spaceLocations = {}
    local keyTerms = {}
    for i=1, string.len(words) do
        if string.sub(words, i, i) == " " then
            table.insert(spaceLocations, i)
        end
    end
    for i=1,#spaceLocations+2 do
        if i == 1 then
            table.insert(keyTerms, string.sub(words, 1, spaceLocations[1]))
        elseif i == #spaceLocations+2 then
            --Do nothing.
        else
            table.insert(keyTerms, string.sub(words, spaceLocations[i-1]+1, spaceLocations[i]))
        end
    end
    for i,v in ipairs(keyTerms) do
        if i == #keyTerms then
            --Do nothing.
        else
            keyTerms[i] = string.sub(keyTerms[i], 1, string.len(keyTerms[i])-1)
        end
    end
    return keyTerms
end

local function matchWords(wordTable)
    if searchResults[1][3] ~= nil then
        for i,v in ipairs(searchResults) do
            v[3] = nil
        end
    end
    for i,v in ipairs(searchResults) do
        table.insert(v, 0)
    end
    for i,v in ipairs(wordTable) do
        for i1,v1 in ipairs(searchResults) do
            if string.match(string.lower(v1[1]), string.lower(v)) then
                v1[3] = v1[3]+1
            end
        end
    end
    table.sort(searchResults, function(a,b) return a[3] > b[3] end)
    return searchResults
end

script.Parent.MouseButton1Click:Connect(function()
    local run = matchWords(seperateWords(script.Parent.Parent.InputBox.Text))
    for i,v in ipairs(script.Parent.Parent.SearchResultsScrollingFrame:GetChildren()) do
        v:Destroy()
    end
    for i,v in ipairs(searchResults) do
        local clone = script.Parent.Parent.SearchResultExampleButton:Clone()
        clone.Parent = script.Parent.Parent.SearchResultsScrollingFrame
        clone.Name = "SearchResult"
        clone.Text = v[1]
        clone.PositionValue.Value = v[2]
        clone.Position = UDim2.new(0,10,0,((i-1)*35)+10)
        clone.Visible  = true
    end
    script.Parent.Parent.SearchResultsScrollingFrame.CanvasSize = UDim2.new(0,0,0,(#searchResults*35)+10)
end)