Get string between two delimiters

Question

I have a string like

 s = "<foo> <bar ... <baz.ind>

and I need only the contents of the last <...>. In the above case it should be only baz.ind.

The below code prints not only the "baz.ind".

The <...> is always the last one in a string or does not exist, eg s=a b c. Something like s=<a> b c should also be nil, because there is no <...> at the end.

My idea, which does not work:

s = "<foo> <bar ... <test.ind>"
for w in string.gmatch(s, '([^<]+)>') do print(w) end

RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags. does not help, because it matches all combinations of <...> and not only the last one.

This question is similar to: RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem. — Filburt
– Filburt, Commented Jul 16 at 7:33
AFAIK, Lua does not come with a regular expression engine. Any attempt to use regex is flawed to begin with. Both the tag and the suggested dupe are also off. — Friedrich
– Friedrich, Commented Jul 16 at 7:38

aran · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-16 07:32:46Z

2

You could create a function for that. Something like this should work:

function extract_bracket(s)
    return string.match(s, "<([^<>]-)>%s*$")
end

"<([^<>]-)>" Extracts the final value enclosed in < > at the end of the string, while %s*$ asserts that its followed by only optional spaces and end of the string

answered Jul 16 at 7:32

aran

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1 Comment

Red-Cloud Jul 16 at 7:51

works as expected! Thanks

Sewbacca · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-17 03:06:32Z

Lua has a nice matching option %bab for balanced delimitters (like brackets for example).

%b<> machtes a whole tag < to > allowing for nesting, but with a simple sub we can get the content instead. A $ anchors it to the end.

local function extract_bracket(s)
    local r = s:match "(%b<>)$"
    return r and r:sub(2,-2)
end

The brackets () capture the value. They are not necessary in this case, but if you wanted to allow for spaces like aran did, simply adjust the pattern to (%b<>)%s*$

Shivam Bhosle · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-16 07:38:33Z

0

Use string.match with a pattern anchored to the end of the string ($)

s = "foo> <bar ... <baz.ind>"
print(s:match("<(.*)>$"))

answered Jul 16 at 7:38

Shivam Bhosle

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1 Comment

Red-Cloud Jul 16 at 7:50

That does not work. It should only print baz.ind

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