API strsplit

From WoWWiki

Splits a string using a delimiter (optionally: into a specified number of pieces)

s1, s2, s3 ... sn = strsplit("delimiter", "subject"[, pieces])

Arguments

(delimiter, subject)

delimiter 

String - Delimiter

subject 

String - String to split

pieces 

integer - Optional argument designating the number of pieces to make.

Returns

A list of strings. Not a table.

Example

local a, b, c = strsplit(" ", "a b c d", 3)

Result

a = "a"
b = "b"
c = "c d"

Details

Again, note that the return from strsplit is a list of values, not a table. To get a table, use e.g.:

local tbl = { strsplit(delimiter, subject) }

Also note that strsplit uses a raw string as delimited, not a pattern, so it's not particularily well-suited for e.g. commandline arguments, where it should be ok to use multiple spaces. To extract whitespace-separated arguments, you can use e.g.

local tbl = {}
for v in string.gmatch(" this   has     lots of   space   ", "[^ ]+") do
  tinsert(tbl, v)
end

Nota Bene: This function does not handle embedded NUL characters ("\0") gracefully. If you need a unique "signpost" character embedded in your strings to be split apart later, try the ASCII bell character ("\a"). This won't show up in the game, and strsplit handles it just fine.