I would like to know how to structure a string search so that I can have all matching and unmatching strings returned in my search. For example, given this string:
Hello, \<b\>this is\</b\> me.
I would like a search to return these strings:
Hello, \<b\> this is \</b\> me.
I’ve tried this:
string.gsub( input, "\<(.-)\>", function(str) print( str ) end )
But that only prints:
b /bWell, having toyed with the very regex-like Lua string pattern matching I’ve come up with this little gem:
local t = [[some long html stuff in here]] local cleaner = { { "&", "&" }, { "—", "-" }, { "’", "'" }, { " ", " " }, { "\<br.\*/\>", "\n" }, { "\</p\>", "\n" }, { "(%b\<\>)", "\n" }, { "\n\n\*", "\n" }, { "\n\*$", "" }, { "^\n\*", "" }, } for i=1, #cleaner do local cleans = cleaner[i] t = string.gsub( t, cleans[1], cleans[2] ) end print(t)
This converts erroneous characters to things like new lines and spaces and also removes extraneous new lines, while removing all html blocks - though it first converts </p> and <br /> elements to new lines (even if there are XML attributes included!)
It is a very good first pass, if I do say so myself, and cleans pretty much everything I’m interested in. I will now use this for padding the text out in pages using the display.newText function.
Pat yourself on the back. Nicely done.
Rob
Thanks Rob 
Well, having toyed with the very regex-like Lua string pattern matching I’ve come up with this little gem:
local t = [[some long html stuff in here]] local cleaner = { { "&", "&" }, { "—", "-" }, { "’", "'" }, { " ", " " }, { "\<br.\*/\>", "\n" }, { "\</p\>", "\n" }, { "(%b\<\>)", "\n" }, { "\n\n\*", "\n" }, { "\n\*$", "" }, { "^\n\*", "" }, } for i=1, #cleaner do local cleans = cleaner[i] t = string.gsub( t, cleans[1], cleans[2] ) end print(t)
This converts erroneous characters to things like new lines and spaces and also removes extraneous new lines, while removing all html blocks - though it first converts </p> and <br /> elements to new lines (even if there are XML attributes included!)
It is a very good first pass, if I do say so myself, and cleans pretty much everything I’m interested in. I will now use this for padding the text out in pages using the display.newText function.
Pat yourself on the back. Nicely done.
Rob
Thanks Rob