Make a pattern in lua that match one parenthese and string

Question

I want to make a pattern that matches strings like (figure.

I tried

string.find("See this example (figure 1), "%(%figure$")

But it doesn't work.

user_3832970 · Answer

Your %(%figure$ pattern is invalid, it throws

missing '[' after '%f' in pattern

because %f defines a frontier pattern.

You may use

string.match("See this example (figure 1)", "%((figure%s*%d+)%)")

Details

%( - a ( char
(figure%s*%d+) - Capturing group (this value will be the output of string.match): figure, zero or more whitespaces (%s*) and then 1+ digits (%d+)
%) - a ) char