Using pattern matching in python, extract a table from .lua file

Question

I have a .lua file where there are stored tables in this format:

["f@someFaction - someServer@guildVaults"] = {
    ["someStr1"] = {
        ["someStr2"] = 7,
        ["someStr3"] = 2
    }
    ["someStr4"] = {
        ["someStr5"] = 7,
        ["someStr6"] = 2
    }
}

Basically there can be any number of nested tables. I know the names of the initial table that I'm looking to extract, however, I have trouble extracting the subsequent table.

with open("somePath", "rb") as file:
    f = file.read()

pattern = r"\[\"f@[a-zA-z]+ - [a-zA-z]+@guildVaults\"\] = \{[ \t\n]*"
guildVaults = re.findall(pattern, f)

for guild in guildVaults:
    print guild

Results:

["f@Alliance - Thunderhorn@guildVaults"] = {
["f@Alliance - Proudmoore@guildVaults"] = {
["f@Alliance - Kazzak@guildVaults"] = {
["f@Horde - Draenor@guildVaults"] = {

Any suggestions?

Edit: example of the .lua file here: http://www.pastefile.com/Tx2LVD

alecxe · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-07 17:14:55Z

1

You need to set the appropriate flags. Also, I would extract everything until a single { is present in a line (assuming all of your tables are similarly formatted):

pattern = r"\[\"f@[a-zA-z]+ - [a-zA-z]+@guildVaults\"\] = ({.*?^}$)"
guildVaults = re.findall(pattern, data, re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL)

for guild in guildVaults:
    print(guild)

For the provided input data, it prints:

{
    ["someStr1"] = {
        ["someStr2"] = 7,
        ["someStr3"] = 2
    }
    ["someStr4"] = {
        ["someStr5"] = 7,
        ["someStr6"] = 2
    }
}

answered Mar 7, 2016 at 17:14

alecxe

476k127 gold badges1.1k silver badges1.2k bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

emihir0 Over a year ago

unfortunately that yields an empty result. Here is a screenshot on how it is formatted: i.gyazo.com/8af990c1cb1711fc40db4c7a1adb74fe.png. Here is another screenshot with the first guild hidden: i.gyazo.com/3353d4d40e44e547be7b45a882373b04.png

emihir0 Over a year ago

I've edited the OP and have put a direct sample data there (.lua file)

ddbug · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-07 17:51:01Z

0

Maybe you want to convert the lua to python, then exec the result and get native python objects.

Detect the top-level lines: ["f@someFaction - someServer@guildVaults"] = {

and extract all text until the ending } .

In this text, remove all square brackets, replace all "}" to "}," and = to :.
Prepend some variable name for the result, for example foo = { and add } at end.

You will get:

foo = {
    "someStr1" : {
        "someStr2" : 7,
        "someStr3" : 2
    },
    "someStr4" : {
        "someStr5" : 7,
        "someStr6" : 2
    }
}

Now, this can be manipulated in Python.

answered Mar 7, 2016 at 17:51

ddbug

1,5491 gold badge13 silver badges31 bronze badges

5 Comments

emihir0 Over a year ago

Indeed, that is the end goal. Problem is the 'extract all text until ending }' part.

ddbug Over a year ago

Apply some heuristic :) LIke, } alone in postion 1. Or in the hard way, count opening and closing curly braces.

emihir0 Over a year ago

Well the reason why I want to use pattern matching is because it should be possible to extract the text here: ["f@someFaction - someServer@guildVaults"] = { ... text to extract ... }. However, I was unable to make it work and even with @alecxe's solution, it still does not work - hence I provided an actual file to do some testing on.

ddbug Over a year ago

Maybe this can be done with some advanced regexp fu. Perhaps I'd combine both things: simply loop thru the file + simple pattern matching for searching the 1st and last line of each chunk/variable. And be done with it.

emihir0 Over a year ago

I've realised that the mistake was in using 'rb' instead of 'r' when opening the file. It works according to alecxe's suggestion now (with some minor tweaks).

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Using pattern matching in python, extract a table from .lua file

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

2 Comments

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related