API gsub

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Substitutes text matching a pattern with a replacement.

text, count = string.gsub(s, pattern, replace [, n])
            = gsub
            = s:gsub

Arguments

s

string - String to search.

pattern

string - Pattern matching expression, covered in HOWTO: Use Pattern Matching or the Patterns Tutorial on Lua-Users.org.

replace

string|function|table - Replacement text, or a function which may return replacement text, or a lookup table which may contain replacements (see details).

n

number? - The maximum number of substitutions (unlimited if omitted).

Returns

text

string - Resulting string after any substitutions.

count

number - Number of times the pattern was matched; including when no suitable replacement was found (applicable when replace is a function or table).

Details

• For each match against pattern in s, gsub replaces this matched text using either:
  • A string that may include captures such as $1;
  • A function that receives captures as arguments and returns a string or nil to leave unchanged; or
  • A table with keys to be replaced by values, or unchanged if the matched text is not a key.
• When n is defined, each match counts even if there is no change.

Example

Simple substitutions:

> = string.gsub("Hello banana", "banana", "Lua user")
Hello Lua user  1
> = string.gsub("banana", "a", "A", 2)  -- limit substitutions made to 2
bAnAna  2

Simple substitutions with captures:

> = string.gsub("banana", "(an)", "%1-")    -- capture any occurrences of "an" and replace with inserted trailing dashes
ban-an-a        2
> = string.gsub("banana", "a(n)", "a(%1)")  -- place parentheses around each "n" which follows an "a"
ba(n)a(n)a      2
> = string.gsub("banana", "(a)(n)", "%2%1") -- reverse any occurrences of "an"
bnanaa  2

Using a function with captures:

> = string.gsub("Hello Lua user", "(%w+)", print)  -- print any words found
Hello
Lua
user
        3
> = string.gsub("Hello Lua user", "(%w+)", function(w) return string.len(w) end) -- replace each word with that word's length
5 3 4   3
> = string.gsub("banana", "(a)", string.upper)                                   -- make all occurrences of "a" uppercase
bAnAnA  3
> = string.gsub("banana", "(a)(n)", function(a,b) return b..a end)               -- reverse any occurrences of "an"
bnanaa  2

Using a table with keys/values:

> = string.gsub("HelloWorld!", "%w%w%w%w%w", {["World"] = "WorldOfWarcraft"})    -- Matches Hello and World (5 letters), but only World is in the table.
HelloWorldOfWarcraft     2