Re: Re; conditional replace

["Juri Munkki" <jm_list@...>]

On Mon, September 24, 2007 11:19 pm, Thomas A. Schmitz wrote:
>> This works because ipairs() does bring out the "array-style"
>> entries (i.e. those with index 1..n) in a table in numeric order.
>
> Very cool, I will try that! Thanks

I think you'll find nested tables easier to maintain. You'll have one
extra table for each substitution, but I think that's a fair price for
some added clarity:

replacements = {
	{	"caterpillar", "butterfly" },
	{	"cat", "dog" },
	{	"goldfish", "parrot" }};

function translate(text)
	for i,v in ipairs(replacements) do
		text = text:gsub(v[1], v[2]);
	end

	return text;
end

print(translate("The cat looked at the caterpillar as if it had just
swallowed a goldfish."));

should print out:

  The dog looked at the butterfly as if it had just swallowed a parrot.

Swap the first two lines of the substitutions table to get:

  The dog looked at the dogerpillar as if it had just swallowed a parrot.

-- 
Juri Munkki