Text Processing

wiki

[!] VersionNotice: The below code pertains to an older Lua version, Lua 4. It does not run as is under Lua 5.

-- Write a line adding \n to the end
--   [fp]: file handle
--   s: string to write
function writeLine(fp, s)
  if not s then s, fp = fp, nil end
  if fp then write(fp, s .. "\n")
  else write(s .. "\n")
  end
end

-- Remove any final \n from a string.
--   s: string to process
-- returns
--   s: processed string
function chomp(s)
  return gsub(s, "\n$", "")
end

-- Escape a string to be used as a pattern
--   s: string to process
-- returns
--   s: processed string
function escapePattern(s)
  s = gsub(s, "(%W)", "%%%1")
  return s
end

-- Escape a string to be used as a shell token (quote spaces and \s)
--   s: string to process
-- returns
--   s: processed string
function escapeShell(s)
  s = gsub(s, "([ %(%)])", "\\%1")
  return s
end

-- Turn a list of strings into a sep-separated string
--   sep: separator
--   l: list of strings to join
-- returns
--   s: joined up string
function join(sep, l)
  local len = getn(l)
  if len == 0 then return "" end
  local s = l[1]
  for i = 2, len do s = s .. sep .. l[i] end
  return s
end

-- Justify a string
--   s: string to justify
--   width: width to justify to (+ve means right-justify; negative
--     means left-justify)
--   [padder]: string to pad with (" " if omitted)
-- returns
--   s: justified string
function pad(s, width, padder)
  padder = strrep(padder or " ", abs(width))
  if width < 0 then return strsub(padder .. s, width) end
  return strsub(s .. padder, 1, width)
end

-- Wrap a string into a paragraph
--   s: string to wrap
--   w: width to wrap to [78]
--   i1: indent of first line [0]
--   i2: indent of subsequent lines [0]
-- returns
--   s: wrapped paragraph
function wrap(s, w, i1, i2)
  w = w or 78
  i1 = i1 or 0
  i2 = i2 or 0
  affirm(i1 < w and i2 < w,
         "wrap: the indents must be less than the line width")
  s = strrep(" ", i1) .. s
  local lstart, len = 1, strlen(s)
  while len - lstart > w do
    local i = lstart + w
    while i > lstart and strsub(s, i, i) ~= " " do i = i - 1 end
    local j = i
    while j > lstart and strsub(s, j, j) == " " do j = j - 1 end
    s = strsub(s, 1, j) .. "\n" .. strrep(" ", i2) ..
      strsub(s, i + 1, -1)
    local change = i2 + 1 - (i - j)
    lstart = j + change
    len = len + change
  end
  return s
end

-- readLines: read _INPUT into a list of lines
-- returns
--   line: list of lines
function readLines()
  local line = {}
  repeat
    local l = read("*l")
    if not l then break end
    tinsert(line, l)
  until nil
  return line
end