Lua string.gsub text between pattern

Question

How would I extract in Lua a text between a pattern. For example ``` s="this is a test string. something more" ``` - I would need only the date/time as result: `2014-05-03 23:12:08` `print(string.gsub(s, "%"))` doesn't work - I would need all the text WITHOUT the date/time like: `"this is a test string. something more"`

Accepted Answer

The pattern `""` works, but you need to use `string.match` to get the date/time part: ``` print(string.match(s, "")) ``` Note that you don't need to escape `!` or `<` in a pattern. Of course escaping them is not an error. To get the string without the date/time part, replace it with an empty string: ``` local result = string.gsub(s, "", "") print(result) ``` You can also expand the pattern `.-` to validate the format of date/time more: ``` result = string.gsub(s, "", "") ```

Lua string.gsub text between pattern

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