Lua: How do I access a string value as an array (or table)?

Question

I was wondering how I use a string value as an array in Lua. I do know how to use it in languages like C#, but I don't know how to do it in Lua.

Is you goal to access individual characters or character spans of the string? — Marc Balmer
– Marc Balmer, Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 10:44
Show us the equivalent C# code that you're trying to accomplish in lua. — greatwolf
– greatwolf, Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 11:05
To get single character at position i (1-based), use str:sub(i,i). The is no opposite operation (to modify single character inside a string), as Lua strings are immutable. — Egor Skriptunoff
– Egor Skriptunoff, Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 11:42

John · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-04 07:37:18Z

1

string.sub(yourString,i,j) or just sub(yourString,i,j) where i = j to get just one character in the string. Remember that Lua is 1-indexed, not 0-indexed like C#. Have a look at the Lua string documentation for more details.

answered Jan 4, 2017 at 7:37

John

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Luiz Menezes · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-04 15:57:57Z

0

You can get the String metatable and change the metamethod __index to return the character on a given position... the code below does exactly that.

getmetatable('').__index = function(str,i) return string.sub(str,i,i) end
--example
string = "dog"
print(string[3])
-- Output: g

answered Jan 4, 2017 at 15:57

Luiz Menezes

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1 Comment

Luiz Menezes Over a year ago

I tried to use the __newindex to make it read/write, but turn out that the first argument in the function is a string, and thus is passed by copy... should it got passed by reference it would be possible to change it.

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