Patterns in Lua

Lua's own matching: %d, %a, captures, gmatch, gsub.

-- Lua patterns: %d digits, %a letters, captures in parentheses.
local log = "found 3 gems, 45 gold, 1 idol"

for count, thing in log:gmatch("(%d+) (%a+)") do
  print(thing .. " x" .. count)
end

-- match pulls one capture; gsub rewrites and counts.
local first = log:match("%d+")
print("First number: " .. first)

local shouted, hits = log:gsub("gold", "GOLD")
print(shouted)
print("Replacements: " .. hits)

How it works

gmatch iterates every match; captures unpack in the loop.
match pulls the first capture out directly.
gsub rewrites and reports how many times.

Keywords and builtins used here

do
end
for
gmatch
gsub
in
local
match
print

The run, in numbers

Lines: 14
Characters to type: 406
Tokens: 81
Three-star pace: 60 tpm

At the three-star pace of 60 tokens a minute, this run takes about 81 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 1 of 3 in Patterns & errors, step 20 of 27 in Language basics.

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Patterns in other languages

Dart