README.md

Lua Bindings

This directory contains Lua bindings for bp. The bindings are intended to be roughly equivalent in usefulness to LPEG, but with a smaller codebase (roughly 3/4 the size, as of this writing).

API

The Lua bp bindings provide the following methods:

bp.match(pattern, text, [start_index]) --> match / nil
bp.replace(pattern, replacement, text, [start_index]) --> text_with_replacements, num_replacements
bp.compile(pattern) --> pattern_object
for m in bp.matches(pattern, text, [start_index]) do ... end

pattern_object:match(text, [start_index]) --> match / nil
pattern_object:replace(replacement, text, [start_index]) --> text_with_replacements, num_replacements
for m in pattern_object:matches(text, [start_index]) do ... end

Match objects returned by bp.match() are tables whose __tostring will return the text of the match. Additionally, match objects store the text of the match at index 0, the match's starting index in the source string as .start, the first index after the match as .after, and any captures stored as match objects with a key corresponding to the capture's identifier (e.g. @"a" @foo="bc" will be encoded as {[0]="abc", [1]="a", foo={[0]="bc"}}. If multiple captures within a match share the same identifier, it is unspecified which captured match will be stored at that key, so it's best to be unambiguous.

Pattern objects returned by bp.compile() are pre-compiled patterns that are slightly faster to reuse than just calling bp.match() repeatedly. They have :match(), :replace(), and :matches() methods as described above, as well as a :getsource() method that returns the original source used to make the pattern.

All methods will raise an error with a descriptive message if the given pattern has a syntax error.

Example Usage

local bp = require("bp")
local m = bp.match('"n" @Es=+`e "dle"', "like finding a needle in a haystack")
--> {[0]="needle", Es={[0]="ee", start=17, after=19}, start=16, after=22}
--> tostring(m) == "needle", tostring(m.Es) == "ee"
local replaced, nreplacements = bp.match('"n" +`e "dle"', "cat", "like finding a needle in a haystack")
--> "like finding a cat in a haystack", 1

for word in bp.matches("+`A-Z,a-z", "one, two three... four!") do
    print(word) --> prints "one" "two" "three" "four"
end

local pat = bp.compile("word parens")
for _,s in ipairs(my_strings) do
    for fncall in pat:matches(s) do
        print(fncall)
    end
end