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Replacing String in String Corona SDK

Problem: I have a string like such: "this is a !a joke !/a! haha"
The problem is that I want to replace the part "!a joke !/a!" However, the problem is that I cannot use string.replace() since the part between "!a and !/a!" changes so sometimes it may be "!a happy !/a!" or sometimes it may be "!a cheer !/a!" and so on.... My question is how can I replace this string if all that stays the same is !a and !/a

Solution

  • You can use string.gsub with lua string-patterns:

    string.gsub("this is a !a joke !/a! haha", "!a %a+ !/a!", "cheer")

    If need be you can even capture the string that's between !a:

    local str = "this is a !a joke !/a! haha"
str:gsub ("!a (%a+) !/a!", "sad %1")

    Which after substitution gives you "this is a sad joke haha".

    See the Lua reference manual 6.4.1 - Patterns for other patterns and character classes available.