LUA getting values from table by using a string - loops

Question

How would I go about compiling values from a table using a string?
i.e.
NumberDef = {
[1] = 1,
[2] = 2,
[3] = 3
}
TextDef = {
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3
}
If I was for example to request "1ABC3", how would I get it to output 1 1 2 3 3?
Greatly appreciate any response.

Answer 1

Try this:
s="1ABC3z9"
t=s:gsub(".",function (x)
local y=tonumber(x)
if y~=nil then
y=NumberDef[y]
else
y=TextDef[x:lower()]
end
return (y or x).." "
end)
print(t)
This may be simplified if you combine the two tables into one.

Answer 2

You can access values in a lua array like so:
TableName["IndexNameOrNumber"]
Using your example:
NumberDef = {
[1] = 1,
[2] = 2,
[3] = 3
}
TextDef = {
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3
}
print(NumberDef[2])--Will print 2
print(TextDef["c"])--will print 3
If you wish to access all values of a Lua array you can loop through all values like so (similarly to a foreach in c#):
for i,v in next, TextDef do
print(i, v)
end
--Output:
--c 3
--a 1
--b 2
So to answer your request, you would request those values like so:
print(NumberDef[1], TextDef["a"], TextDef["b"], TextDef["c"], NumberDef[3])--Will print 1 1 2 3 3
One more point, if you're interested in concatenating lua string this can be accomplished like so:
string1 = string2 .. string3
Example:
local StringValue1 = "I"
local StringValue2 = "Love"
local StringValue3 = StringValue1 .. " " .. StringValue2 .. " Memes!"
print(StringValue3) -- Will print "I Love Memes!"
UPDATE
I whipped up a quick example code you could use to handle what you're looking for. This will go through the inputted string and check each of the two tables if the value you requested exists. If it does it will add it onto a string value and print at the end the final product.
local StringInput = "1abc3" -- Your request to find
local CombineString = "" --To combine the request
NumberDef = {
[1] = 1,
[2] = 2,
[3] = 3
}
TextDef = {
["a"] = 1,
["b"] = 2,
["c"] = 3
}
for i=1, #StringInput do --Foreach character in the string inputted do this
local CurrentCharacter = StringInput:sub(i,i); --get the current character from the loop position
local Num = tonumber(CurrentCharacter)--If possible convert to number
if TextDef[CurrentCharacter] then--if it exists in text def array then combine it
CombineString = CombineString .. TextDef[CurrentCharacter]
end
if NumberDef[Num] then --if it exists in number def array then combine it
CombineString = CombineString .. NumberDef[Num]
end
end
print("Combined: ", CombineString) --print the final product.