Case-insensitive Lua pattern-matching

Question

I\'m writing a grep utility in Lua for our mobile devices running Windows CE 6/7, but I\'ve run into some issues implementing case-insensitive match patterns. The obvious so

Answer 1

Try something like this:

function case_insensitive_pattern(pattern)

  -- find an optional '%' (group 1) followed by any character (group 2)
  local p = pattern:gsub("(%%?)(.)", function(percent, letter)

    if percent ~= "" or not letter:match("%a") then
      -- if the '%' matched, or `letter` is not a letter, return "as is"
      return percent .. letter
    else
      -- else, return a case-insensitive character class of the matched letter
      return string.format("[%s%s]", letter:lower(), letter:upper())
    end

  end)

  return p
end

print(case_insensitive_pattern("xyz = %d+ or %% end"))

which prints:

[xX][yY][zZ] = %d+ [oO][rR] %% [eE][nN][dD]

Answer 2

Lua 5.1, LPeg v0.12

do
    local p = re.compile([[
        pattern  <- ( {b} / {escaped} / brackets / other)+
        b        <- "%b" . .
        escaped  <- "%" .
        brackets <- { "[" ([^]%]+ / escaped)* "]" }
        other    <- [^[%]+ -> cases
    ]], {
        cases = function(str) return (str:gsub('%a',function(a) return '['..a:lower()..a:upper()..']' end)) end
    })
    local pb = re.compile([[
        pattern  <- ( {b} / {escaped} / brackets / other)+
        b        <- "%b" . .
        escaped  <- "%" .
        brackets <- {: {"["} ({escaped} / bcases)* {"]"} :}
        bcases   <- [^]%]+ -> bcases
        other    <- [^[%]+ -> cases
    ]], {
        cases = function(str) return (str:gsub('%a',function(a) return '['..a:lower()..a:upper()..']' end)) end
        , bcases = function(str) return (str:gsub('%a',function(a) return a:lower()..a:upper() end)) end
    })
    function iPattern(pattern,brackets)
        ('sanity check'):find(pattern)
        return table.concat({re.match(pattern, brackets and pb or p)})
    end
end

local test                  = '[ab%c%]d%%]+ o%%r %bnm'
print(iPattern(test))       -- [ab%c%]d%%]+ [oO]%%[rR] %bnm
print(iPattern(test,true))  -- [aAbB%c%]dD%%]+ [oO]%%[rR] %bnm
print(('qwe [%D]% O%r n---m asd'):match(iPattern(test, true))) -- %D]% O%r n---m

---

Pure Lua version:

It is necessary to analyze all the characters in the string to convert it into a correct pattern because Lua patterns do not have alternations like in regexps (abc|something).

function iPattern(pattern, brackets)
    ('sanity check'):find(pattern)
    local tmp = {}
    local i=1
    while i <= #pattern do              -- 'for' don't let change counter
        local char = pattern:sub(i,i)   -- current char
        if char == '%' then
            tmp[#tmp+1] = char          -- add to tmp table
            i=i+1                       -- next char position
            char = pattern:sub(i,i)
            tmp[#tmp+1] = char
            if char == 'b' then         -- '%bxy' - add next 2 chars
                tmp[#tmp+1] = pattern:sub(i+1,i+2)
                i=i+2
            end
        elseif char=='[' then           -- brackets
            tmp[#tmp+1] = char
            i = i+1
            while i <= #pattern do
                char = pattern:sub(i,i)
                if char == '%' then     -- no '%bxy' inside brackets
                    tmp[#tmp+1] = char
                    tmp[#tmp+1] = pattern:sub(i+1,i+1)
                    i = i+1
                elseif char:match("%a") then    -- letter
                    tmp[#tmp+1] = not brackets and char or char:lower()..char:upper()
                else                            -- something else
                    tmp[#tmp+1] = char
                end
                if char==']' then break end -- close bracket
                i = i+1
            end
        elseif char:match("%a") then    -- letter
            tmp[#tmp+1] = '['..char:lower()..char:upper()..']'
        else
            tmp[#tmp+1] = char          -- something else
        end
        i=i+1
    end
    return table.concat(tmp)
end

local test                  = '[ab%c%]d%%]+ o%%r %bnm'
print(iPattern(test))       -- [ab%c%]d%%]+ [oO]%%[rR] %bnm
print(iPattern(test,true))  -- [aAbB%c%]dD%%]+ [oO]%%[rR] %bnm
print(('qwe [%D]% O%r n---m asd'):match(iPattern(test, true))) -- %D]% O%r n---m