LUA select specific string in table

Question

I have a problem to recover values from a LUA table.

Table (string):

table = {
key = "/get value0\n/get [opt1][opt2] value1\n/get [opt1][opt2][opt3][opt4] value2\n/get value3\n/get [opt1] value4",
},

is it possible to select "/get" and "value0" for the first line. and "/get" and "value1 or 2 / 3 / 4" on all other lines ?

I think I have an idea for it to work, but easier to say than to do

• 1) Counts total number of "\n" and add one.
• 2) Select first "/" and first space.
• 3) Select last "]" if present or last space before value.
• 4) repeat the operation for each line.

result:

/get value0 
/get value1 
/get value2 
/get value3 
/get value4

Answer 1

Try this code:

s=[[
/get value0
/get [opt1][opt2] value1
/get [opt1][opt2][opt3][opt4] value2
/get value3
/get [opt1] value4
]]

for l in s:gmatch("(/.-)\n") do
    print((l:gsub("%b[]%s*","")))
end

It first spits the string into lines and then removes all strings in brackets optionally followed by spaces.

A simpler match is l:gsub(" .* "," "), which will remove everything from the first space to the last.

If you want to split the resulting string, use this code:

for l in s:gmatch("(/.-)\n") do
    local var1, var2 = l:gsub(" .* "," "):match("(.*) (.*)$")
    print(var1, var2 )
end