Lua: Search a specific string

Question

Hi all tried all the string pattrens and library arguments but still stuck.

i want to get the name of the director from the following string i have tried the string.matcH but it matches the from the first character it finD from the string

the string is...

fixstrdirector = {id:39254,cast:[{id:15250,name:Hope Davis,character:Aunt Debra,order:5,cast_id:10,profile_path:/aIHF11Ss8P0A8JUfiWf8OHPVhOs.jpg},{id:53650,name:Anthony Mackie,character:Finn,order:3,cast_id:11,profile_path:/5VGGJ0Co8SC94iiedWb2o3C36T.jpg},{id:19034,name:Evangeline Lilly,character:Bailey Tallet,order:2,cast_id:12,profile_path:/oAOpJKgKEdW49jXrjvUcPcEQJb3.jpg},{id:6968,name:Hugh Jackman,character:Charlie Kenton,order:0,cast_id:13,profile_path:/wnl7esRbP3paALKn4bCr0k8qaFu.jpg},{id:79072,name:Kevin Durand,character:Ricky,order:4,cast_id:14,profile_path:/c95tTUjx5T0D0ROqTcINojpH6nB.jpg},{id:234479,name:Dakota Goyo,character:Max Kenton,order:1,cast_id:15,profile_path:/7PU6n4fhDuFwuwcYVyRNVEZE7ct.jpg},{id:8986,name:James Rebhorn,character:Marvin,order:6,cast_id:16,profile_path:/ezETMv0YM0Rg6YhKpu4vHuIY37D.jpg},{id:930729,name:Marco Ruggeri,character:Cliff,order:7,cast_id:17,profile_path:/1Ox63ukTd2yfOf1LVJOMXwmeQjO.jpg},{id:19860,name:Karl Yune,character:Tak Mashido,order:8,c ast_id:18,profile_path:/qK315vPObCNdywdRN66971FtFez.jpg},{id:111206,name:Olga Fonda,character:Farra Lemkova,order:9,cast_id:19,profile_path:/j1qabOHf3Pf82f1lFpUmdF5XvSp.jpg},{id:53176,name:John Gatins,character:Kingpin,order:10,cast_id:41,profile_path:/A2MqnSKVzOuBf8MVfNyve2h2LxJ.jpg},{id:1126350,name:Sophie Levy,character:Big Sister,order:11,cast_id:42,profile_path:null},{id:1126351,name:Tess Levy,character:Little Sister,order:12,cast_id:43,profile_path:null},{id:1126352,name:Charlie Levy,character:Littlest Sister,order:13,cast_id:44,profile_path:null},{id:187983,name:Gregory Sims,character:Bill Panner,order:14,cast_id:45,profile_path:null}],crew:[{id:58726,name:Leslie Bohem,department:Writing,job:Screenplay,profile_path:null},{id:53176,name:John Gatins,department:Writing,job:Screenplay,profile_path:/A2MqnSKVzOuBf8MVfNyve2h2LxJ.jpg},{id:17825,name:Shawn Levy,department:Directing,job:Director,profile_path:/7f2f8EXdlWsPYN0HPGcIlG21xU.jpg},{id:12415,name:Richard Matheson,department:Writi ng,job:Story,profile_path:null},{id:57113,name:Dan Gilroy,department:Writing,job:Story,profile_path:null},{id:25210,name:Jeremy Leven,department:Writing,job:Story,profile_path:null},{id:17825,name:Shawn Levy,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:/7f2f8EXdlWsPYN0HPGcIlG21xU.jpg},{id:34970,name:Susan Montford,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:/1XJt51Y9ciPhkHrAYE0j6Jsmgji.jpg},{id:3183,name:Don Murphy,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:null},{id:34967,name:Rick Benattar,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:null},{id:1126348,name:Eric Hedayat,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:null},{id:186721,name:Ron Ames,department:Production,job:Producer,profile_path:null},{id:10956,name:Josh McLaglen,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:null},{id:57634,name:Mary McLaglen,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:null},{id:23779,name:Jack Rapke,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:null },{id:488,name:Steven Spielberg,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:/cuIYdFbEe89PHpoiOS9tmo84ED2.jpg},{id:30,name:Steve Starkey,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:null},{id:24,name:Robert Zemeckis,department:Production,job:Executive Producer,profile_path:/isCuZ9PWIOyXzdf3ihodXzjIumL.jpg},{id:531,name:Danny Elfman,department:Sound,job:Original Music Composer,profile_path:/pWacZpYPos8io22nEiim7d3wp2j.jpg},{id:18265,name:Mauro Fiore,department:Crew,job:Cinematography,profile_path:null},{id:54271,name:Dean Zimmerman,department:Editing,job:Editor,profile_path:null},{id:25365,name:Richard Hicks,department:Production,job:Casting,profile_path:null},{id:5490,name:David Rubin,department:Production,job:Casting,profile_path:null},{id:52088,name:Tom Meyer,department:Art,job:Production Design,profile_path:null}]}

i have tried string.match(fixstrdirector,"name:(.+),department:Directing")

but it gives me the from the first occurace it find the name to the end of thr string

output:

Hope Davis,character:Aunt Debra,order:5,cast_id:10,profile_path:/aIHF11Ss8P0A8JUfiWf8OHPVhOs.jpg},{id:53650,name:Anthony Mackie,character:Finn,order:3,cast_id:11,profile_path:/5VGGJ0Co8SC94iiedWb2o3C36T.jpg},{id:19034,name:Evangeline Lilly,character:Bailey Tallet,order:2,cast_id:12,profile_path:/oAOpJKgKEdW49jXrjvUcPcEQJb3.jpg},{id:6968,name:Hugh Jackman,character:Charlie Kenton,order:0,cast_id:13,profile_path:/wnl7esRbP3paALKn4bCr0k8qaFu.jpg},{id:79072,name:Kevin Durand,character:Ricky,order:4,cast_id:14,profile_path:/c95tTUjx5T0D0ROqTcINojpH6nB.jpg},{id:234479,name:Dakota Goyo,character:Max Kenton,order:1,cast_id:15,profile_path:/7PU6n4fhDuFwuwcYVyRNVEZE7ct.jpg},{id:8986,name:James Rebhorn,character:Marvin,order:6,cast_id:16,profile_path:/ezETMv0YM0Rg6YhKpu4vHuIY37D.jpg},{id:930729,name:Marco Ruggeri,character:Cliff,order:7,cast_id:17,profile_path:/1Ox63ukTd2yfOf1LVJOMXwmeQjO.jpg},{id:19860,name:Karl Yune,character:Tak Mashido,order:8,cast_id:18,profile_path:/qK315vPObCNdywdRN66971FtFez.jpg},{id:111206,name:Olga Fonda,character:Farra Lemkova,order:9,cast_id:19,profile_path:/j1qabOHf3Pf82f1lFpUmdF5XvSp.jpg},{id:53176,name:John Gatins,character:Kingpin,order:10,cast_id:41,profile_path:/A2MqnSKVzOuBf8MVfNyve2h2LxJ.jpg},{id:1126350,name:Sophie Levy,character:Big Sister,order:11,cast_id:42,profile_path:null},{id:1126351,name:Tess Levy,character:Little Sister,order:12,cast_id:43,profile_path:null},{id:1126352,name:Charlie Levy,character:Littlest Sister,order:13,cast_id:44,profile_path:null},{id:187983,name:Gregory Sims,character:Bill Panner,order:14,cast_id:45,profile_path:null}],crew:[{id:58726,name:Leslie Bohem,department:Writing,job:Screenplay,profile_path:null},{id:53176,name:John Gatins,department:Writing,job:Screenplay,profile_path:/A2MqnSKVzOuBf8MVfNyve2h2LxJ.jpg},{id:17825,name:Shawn Levy

Answer 1

You're searching from the first occurrence of "name:" until the "department:Directing" with everything in between.

Instead, you need to restrict what can be between the two strings. Here for example I'm saying that the characters that make up the name can only be alphanumeric or a space:

string.match(fixstrdirector,"name:([%w ]+),department:Directing")

Alternatively, given that there's a comma separating the parameters, a better approach would be to search for "name:" followed by any characters other than a comma, followed by "department:Directing":

string.match(fixstrdirector,"name:([^,]+),department:Directing")

Of course that wouldn't work if the name had a comma it in!

Answer 2

Lua patterns provides - modifier for tasks as you have above. As stated on PiL - Section 20.2 :

The + modifier matches one or more characters of the original class. It will always get the longest sequence that matches the pattern.

Like * , the modifier - also matches zero or more occurrences of characters of the original class. However, instead of matching the longest sequence, it matches the shortest one.

Next, when you are using . to match, it'll find any and all characters satisfying the pattern. Therefore, you'll get the result from first occurence of name until the ,department:Directing is found. Since you know that it is a JSON data, you can try to match for [^,] ; that is, non-comma characters.

So, for your case try:

local tAllNames = {}
for sName in fixstrdirector:gmatch( "name:([^,]-),department:Directing" ) do
    tAllNames[ #tAllNames + 1 ] = sName
end

and all your required names will be stored in the table tAllNames . An example of the above can be seen at codepad .