Utf8.gsub

Returns a copy of the original input string with replaced matches from the pattern by the replacement value.

[[|link=|]]	Warning: This function may modify your input string even if no changes were made. Try it with runcode: srun utf8.gsub(utf8.char(66376), "", "") == utf8.char(66376)

Syntax

string utf8.gsub ( string input, string pattern, mixed replace [, int match_limit = utf8.len( input ) ] )

Required Arguments

• input: A string character sequence
• pattern: A string match pattern
• replace: A string literal OR an integer value OR a function (see examples below) OR a table ({ match = replacement })

Optional Arguments

NOTE: When using optional arguments, you might need to supply all arguments before the one you wish to use. For more information on optional arguments, see optional arguments.

• match_limit: An integer to limit the number of substitutions made

Returns

Returns a pair of values, the modified string and the integer number of substitutions made.

Example

Click to collapse [-]

Server

This example shows how to remove color codes from a string and how to uppercase each single character in a string.

local text= "#ff0000This text is red"
local colorless = utf8.gsub( text, "#%x%x%x%x%x%x", "" )
print( colorless ) -- This text is red

print( utf8.gsub( "Nice wiki!", ".", utf8.upper ) ) -- NICE WIKI!

Click to collapse [-]

Server

This example uses a table to replace specific words in the input string by an other value.

local input = "We have nice weather in London"

local replacements = {
    ["weather"] = "food",
    ["London"] = "Germany"
}

local output = utf8.gsub( input, "%w+", replacements )
print( output ) -- We have nice food in Germany

Click to collapse [-]

Client

This example shows a simple bad word filter, which censors the word 'ugly' in the input string.

local input = "You are ugly!"

local badwords = {
    ["ugly"] = true
}

local output = utf8.gsub( input, "%w+",
    function (match)
        local lowerCase = utf8.lower( match )
        
        if badwords[ lowerCase ] then
            return string.rep( '*', utf8.len( match ) )
        end
        
        return match
    end
)

outputConsole( output ) -- You are ****!

See Also

• utf8.byte
• utf8.char
• utf8.charpos
• utf8.escape
• utf8.find
• utf8.fold
• utf8.gmatch
• utf8.gsub
• utf8.insert
• utf8.len
• utf8.lower
• utf8.match
• utf8.ncasecmp
• utf8.next
• utf8.remove
• utf8.reverse
• utf8.sub
• utf8.title
• utf8.upper
• utf8.width
• utf8.widthindex