* Help with Regular Expression

[shoshk]

I'm parsing a GEDCOM file. I want to find lines beginning with '2 DATE' or '2 PLAC'. The following expression works:

Code: Select all

sLine:match("^2 DATE") or sLine:match("^2 PLAC)

I'd like to combine this into one expression. I tried this:

Code: Select all

sLine:match("^2 (DATE|PLAC)")

but it doesn't work. Can somebody help? I'm really bad at this regular expression stuff.

Thanks,
Shosh

[shoshk]

I think I found the answer to my question. It seems that lua expressions do not include the 'or' operator.

[ColeValleyGirl]

It helps to remember that Lua patterns are not regexes. (It drives me mad too).

[tatewise]

The best you can achieve with an Lua Pattern is "^2 [DP][AL][TA][EC]"
Which matches DATE and PLAC and potentially other tags but there are no standard tags that start with DL or PA nor end with TC or EA so all is OK.