rex:match pattern works in immediate window but not in a send to script trigger?

Posted by Eupher on Tue 10 Aug 2010 11:12 PM — 4 posts, 18,566 views.

Eupher Tue 10 Aug 2010 11:12 PM #0

I'm new to this and probably doing something stupid... but here goes...

I have a trigger in my world file that calls rex:match in the send to script section. The pattern is not matching there, but if I use the same pattern (and test text) in the immediate window then it matches.

Trigger pattern: ^God tells you: "do (?<order>.+)"$
regular expression is checked
send to script is selected

send:
re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\s+(\S+)\s+do\s+(.+)$]])
s,e,t = re:match("%<order>")
print("%<order>")
print(s,e,t)

When I test the trigger, I get the following output:

God tells you: "do tell me do kill"
tell me do kill
nil nil nil

However, if I put the following script into the immediate window:

re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\s+(\S+)\s+do\s+(.+)$]])
s,e,t = re:match("tell me do kill")
print(s,e,t)

I get the following output:

1 15 table: 03B09530

Why is it matching in one place and not the other?

Thanks :)

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Tue 10 Aug 2010 11:27 PM #1

It would help if you simply pasted the XML from the trigger rather than explaining it piece by piece.

For advice on how to copy aliases, timers or triggers from within MUSHclient, and paste them into a forum message, please see Copying XML.

Your problem is that inside the Send box, MUSHclient pre-processes backslash sequences, so that \s won't be sent to the rex.new.


re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\s+(\S+)\s+do\s+(.+)$]])

You need to defeat that by doubling the backslashes, this worked for me:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="^God tells you: &quot;do (?&lt;order&gt;.+)&quot;$"
   regexp="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="110"
  >
  <send>

re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\\s+(\\S+)\\s+do\\s+(.+)$]])
s,e,t = re:match("%&lt;order&gt;")
print("%&lt;order&gt;")
print(s,e,t)

</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>

For advice on how to copy the above, and paste it into MUSHclient, please see Pasting XML.

If this is confusing, use a script file and put the name of a function in the "Script" box of the trigger, and have the function in your script file. Then you don't need to double the backslashes.

For example:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="^God tells you: &quot;do (?&lt;order&gt;.+)&quot;$"
   regexp="y"
   script="mytrigger"
   sequence="110"
  >
  </trigger>
</triggers>

And in your script file:



function mytrigger (name, line, wildcards)
  re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\s+(\S+)\s+do\s+(.+)$]])
  s,e,t = re:match(wildcards.order)
  print(wildcards.order)
  print(s,e,t)

  -- debugging  
  require "tprint"
  tprint (t)
end -- function mytrigger

Output:


God tells you: "do tell me do kill"

tell me do kill
1 15 table: 03917CC0
1="tell"
2="me"
3="kill"

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Tue 10 Aug 2010 11:29 PM #2

And it would then be more efficient to only "compile" the regexp once:



-- do this when script loaded
re = rex.new([[^(t|te|tel|tell)\s+(\S+)\s+do\s+(.+)$]])

function mytrigger (name, line, wildcards)
  s,e,t = re:match(wildcards.order)
  print(wildcards.order)
  print(s,e,t)

  -- debugging  
  require "tprint"
  tprint (t)
end -- function mytrigger

Eupher Wed 11 Aug 2010 01:54 AM #3

Thanks for the help. I'll be sure to post the xml next time. :)