Lua Pattern matching The `gmatch` function
Example
How it works
The string.gmatch function will take an input string and a pattern. This pattern describes on what to actually get back. This function will return a function which is actually an iterator. The result of this iterator will match to the pattern.
type(("abc"):gmatch ".") --> returns "function"
for char in ("abc"):gmatch "." do
print char -- this prints:
--> a
--> b
--> c
end
for match in ("#afdde6"):gmatch "%x%x" do
print("#" .. match) -- prints:
--> #af
--> #dd
--> #e6
end
Introducing captures:
This is very similair to the regular function, however it will return only the captures instead the full match.
for key, value in ("foo = bar, bar=foo"):gmatch "(%w+)%s*=%s*(%w+)" do
print("key: " .. key .. ", value: " .. value)
--> key: foo, value: bar
--> key: bar, value: foo
end
