Split string in Lua?

If you program in Lua, you are out of luck here. Lua is THE one programming language that just happens to be notoriously infamous because its authors never implemented "the" split function in the standard library, and instead wrote 16 screenfulls of explanations and lame excuses as to why they didn't and wouldn't, interspersed with numerous half-working examples that are virtually guaranteed to work for almost everyone but break in your corner case. This is just Lua state of the art, and everyone who programs in Lua simply ends up clenching their teeth and iterating over characters. There are lots of solutions in existence that are sometimes better, but exactly zero solutions that are reliably better.

I like this short solution

function split(s, delimiter)
    result = {};
    for match in (s..delimiter):gmatch("(.-)"..delimiter) do
        table.insert(result, match);
    end
    return result;
end

You can use this method:

function string:split(delimiter)
  local result = { }
  local from  = 1
  local delim_from, delim_to = string.find( self, delimiter, from  )
  while delim_from do
    table.insert( result, string.sub( self, from , delim_from-1 ) )
    from  = delim_to + 1
    delim_from, delim_to = string.find( self, delimiter, from  )
  end
  table.insert( result, string.sub( self, from  ) )
  return result
end

delimiter = string.split(stringtodelimite,pattern) 

a way not seen in others

function str_split(str, sep)
    if sep == nil then
        sep = '%s'
    end 

    local res = {}
    local func = function(w)
        table.insert(res, w)
    end 

    string.gsub(str, '[^'..sep..']+', func)
    return res 
end

You could use penlight library. This has a function for splitting string using delimiter which outputs list.

It has implemented many of the function that we may need while programming and missing in Lua.

Here is the sample for using it.

> 
> stringx = require "pl.stringx"
> 
> str = "welcome to the world of lua"
> 
> arr = stringx.split(str, " ")
> 
> arr
{welcome,to,the,world,of,lua}
> 

Super late to this question, but in case anyone wants a version that handles the amount of splits you want to get.....

-- Split a string into a table using a delimiter and a limit
string.split = function(str, pat, limit)
  local t = {}
  local fpat = "(.-)" .. pat
  local last_end = 1
  local s, e, cap = str:find(fpat, 1)
  while s do
    if s ~= 1 or cap ~= "" then
      table.insert(t, cap)
    end

    last_end = e+1
    s, e, cap = str:find(fpat, last_end)

    if limit ~= nil and limit <= #t then
      break
    end
  end

  if last_end <= #str then
    cap = str:sub(last_end)
    table.insert(t, cap)
  end

  return t
end

I found that many of the other answers had edge cases which failed (eg. when given string contains #, { or } characters, or when given a delimiter character like % which require escaping). Here is the implementation that I went with instead:

local function newsplit(delimiter, str)
    assert(type(delimiter) == "string")
    assert(#delimiter > 0, "Must provide non empty delimiter")

    -- Add escape characters if delimiter requires it
    delimiter = delimiter:gsub("[%(%)%.%%%+%-%*%?%[%]%^%$]", "%%%0")

    local start_index = 1
    local result = {}

    while true do
       local delimiter_index, _ = str:find(delimiter, start_index)

       if delimiter_index == nil then
          table.insert(result, str:sub(start_index))
          break
       end

       table.insert(result, str:sub(start_index, delimiter_index - 1))

       start_index = delimiter_index + 1
    end

    return result
end

For those coming from the exercice 10.1 of the "Programming in Lua" book, it seems clear that we could not use notion explained later in the book (iterator) and that the function should take more than a single char seperator.

The split() is a trick to get pattern to match what is not wanted (the split) and return an empty table on empty string. The return of plainSplit() is more like the split in other language.

magic = "([%%%.%(%)%+%*%?%[%]%^%$])"

function split(str, sep, plain)
    if plain then sep = string.gsub(sep, magic, "%%%1") end
    
    local N = '\255'
    str = N..str..N
    str = string.gsub(str, sep, N..N)

    local result = {}
    for word in string.gmatch(str, N.."(.-)"..N) do
        if word ~= "" then
            table.insert(result, word)
        end
    end
    return result
end


function plainSplit(str, sep)
    sep = string.gsub(sep, magic, "%%%1")

    local result = {}
    local start = 0
    repeat
        start = start + 1

        local from, to = string.find(str, sep, start)
        from = from and from-1
        
        local word = string.sub(str, start, from, true)
        table.insert(result, word)

        start = to
    until start == nil

    return result
end


function tableToString(t)
    local ret = "{"
    for _, word in ipairs(t) do
        ret = ret .. '"' .. word .. '", '
    end
    ret = string.sub(ret, 1, -3)
    ret = ret .. "}"

    return #ret > 1 and ret or "{}"
end

function runSplit(func, title, str, sep, plain)
    print("\n" .. title)
    print("str: '"..str.."'")
    print("sep: '"..sep.."'")
    local t = func(str, sep, plain)
    print("-- t = " .. tableToString(t))
end



print("\n\n\n=== Pattern split ===")
runSplit(split, "Exercice 10.1", "a whole new world", " ")
runSplit(split, "With trailing seperator", "  a  whole   new world  ", " ")
runSplit(split, "A word seperator", "a whole new world", " whole ")
runSplit(split, "Pattern seperator", "a1whole2new3world", "%d")
runSplit(split, "Magic characters as plain seperator", "a$.%whole$.%new$.%world", "$.%", true)
runSplit(split, "Control seperator", "a\0whole\1new\2world", "%c")
runSplit(split, "ISO Time", "2020-07-10T15:00:00.000", "[T:%-%.]")

runSplit(split, " === [Fails] with \\255 ===", "a\255whole\0new\0world", "\0", true)

runSplit(split, "How does your function handle empty string?", "", " ")



print("\n\n\n=== Plain split ===")
runSplit(plainSplit, "Exercice 10.1", "a whole new world", " ")
runSplit(plainSplit, "With trailing seperator", "  a  whole   new world  ", " ")
runSplit(plainSplit, "A word seperator", "a whole new world", " whole ")
runSplit(plainSplit, "Magic characters as plain seperator", "a$.%whole$.%new$.%world", "$.%")

runSplit(plainSplit, "How does your function handle empty string?", "", " ")

output

=== Pattern split ===

Exercice 10.1
str: 'a whole new world'
sep: ' '
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

With trailing seperator
str: '  a  whole   new world  '
sep: ' '
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

A word seperator
str: 'a whole new world'
sep: ' whole '
-- t = {"a", "new world"}

Pattern seperator
str: 'a1whole2new3world'
sep: '%d'
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

Magic characters as plain seperator
str: 'a$.%whole$.%new$.%world'
sep: '$.%'
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

Control seperator
str: 'awholenewworld'
sep: '%c'
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

ISO Time
str: '2020-07-10T15:00:00.000'
sep: '[T:%-%.]'
-- t = {"2020", "07", "10", "15", "00", "00", "000"}

 === [Fails] with \255 ===
str: 'a�wholenewworld'
sep: ''
-- t = {"a"}

How does your function handle empty string?
str: ''
sep: ' '
-- t = {}



=== Plain split ===

Exercice 10.1
str: 'a whole new world'
sep: ' '
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

With trailing seperator
str: '  a  whole   new world  '
sep: ' '
-- t = {"", "", "a", "", "whole", "", "", "new", "world", "", ""}

A word seperator
str: 'a whole new world'
sep: ' whole '
-- t = {"a", "new world"}

Magic characters as plain seperator
str: 'a$.%whole$.%new$.%world'
sep: '$.%'
-- t = {"a", "whole", "new", "world"}

How does your function handle empty string?
str: ''
sep: ' '
-- t = {""}

Here is a routine that works in Lua 4.0, returning a table t of the substrings in inputstr delimited by sep:

function string_split(inputstr, sep)
    local inputstr = inputstr .. sep
    local idx, inc, t = 0, 1, {}
    local idx_prev, substr
    repeat 
        idx_prev = idx
        inputstr = strsub(inputstr, idx + 1, -1)    -- chop off the beginning of the string containing the match last found by strfind (or initially, nothing); keep the rest (or initially, all)
        idx = strfind(inputstr, sep)                -- find the 0-based r_index of the first occurrence of separator 
        if idx == nil then break end                -- quit if nothing's found
        substr = strsub(inputstr, 0, idx)           -- extract the substring occurring before the separator (i.e., data field before the next delimiter)
        substr = gsub(substr, "[%c" .. sep .. " ]", "") -- eliminate control characters, separator and spaces
        t[inc] = substr             -- store the substring (i.e., data field)
        inc = inc + 1               -- iterate to next
    until idx == nil
    return t
end

This simple test

inputstr = "the brown lazy fox jumped over the fat grey hen ... or something."
sep = " " 
t = {}
t = string_split(inputstr,sep)
for i=1,15 do
    print(i, t[i])
end

Yields:

--> t[1]=the
--> t[2]=brown
--> t[3]=lazy
--> t[4]=fox
--> t[5]=jumped
--> t[6]=over
--> t[7]=the
--> t[8]=fat
--> t[9]=grey
--> t[10]=hen
--> t[11]=...
--> t[12]=or
--> t[13]=something.

Depending on the use case, this could be useful. It cuts all text either side of the flags:

b = "This is a string used for testing"

--Removes unwanted text
c = (b:match("a([^/]+)used"))

print (c)

Output:

string