Re: Lua 5.2 string patterns do not respect lctype

[Roberto Ierusalimschy <roberto@...>]

> It is tricky to capture the longest valid Lua identifier from the start of
> a string.
> 
> - The pattern "^([%a_][%w_]*)" is locale-dependent.
> 
> - The pattern "^([A-Za-Z_][A-Za-Z0-9_]*)" works only with the original
>   lctype.c.
> 
> [...]
> 
> Any better ideas?

1) Spell it out:

   [abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_][abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_0-9]*

2) do  os.setlocale("C")  before the match.

3) Ignore EBCDIC and assume that [A-Za-Z_] matches all letters.


-- Roberto