scripting: capture groups of multi regex multiline triggers

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scripter99
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Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:58 pm

scripting: capture groups of multi regex multiline triggers

Post by scripter99 »

As of beta-8 you can get all capture groups of all perl regex of a multiline trigger.
The data is being passed on to the trigger script in form of the Lua table multimatches[n][m] with n being the number of the regex on the regex list of the trigger and m being the usual table matches[] as in normal regex triggers.


How to use multilinematches[n][m]
(The following example can be tested on the MUD batmud.bat.org)

In the case of a multiline trigger with these 2 Perl regex as conditions:

^You have (\w+) (\w+) (\w+) (\w+)
^You are (\w+).*(\w+).*
The command "score" generates the following output on batMUD:

You have an almost non-existent ability for avoiding hits.
You are irreproachably kind.
You have not completed any quests.
You are refreshed, hungry, very young and brave.
Conquer leads the human race.
Hp:295/295 Sp:132/132 Ep:182/181 Exp:269 >
If you add this script to the trigger:

showMultimatches();
The script, i.e. the call to the function showMultimatches() generates this output:

-------------------------------------------------------
The table multimatches[n][m] contains:
-------------------------------------------------------
regex 1 captured: (multimatches[1][1-n])
key=1 value=You have not completed any quests
key=2 value=not
key=3 value=completed
key=4 value=any
key=5 value=quests
regex 2 captured: (multimatches[2][1-n])
key=1 value=You are refreshed, hungry, very young and brave
key=2 value=refreshed
key=3 value=young
key=4 value=and
key=5 value=brave
-------------------------------------------------------
The function showMultimatches() prints out the content of the table multimatches[n][m]. You can now see what the table multimatches[][] contains in this case. The first trigger condition (=regex 1) got as the first full match "You have not completed any quests". This is stored in multimatches[1][1] as the value of key=1 in the sub-table matches[1] which, in turn, is the value of key=1 of the table multimatches[n][m].

The structure of the table multimatches:

multimatches {
1 = {
matches[1] of regex 1
matches[2] of regex 1
matches[3] of regex 1
...
matches[n] of regex 1 },
2 = {
matches[1] of regex 2
matches[2] of regex 2
...
matches[n] of regex 2 },
... ...
n = {
matches[1] of regex n
matches[2] of regex n
...
matches[n] of regex n }
}
The sub-table matches[n] is the same table matches[n] you get when you have a standard non-multiline trigger. The value of the first key, i. e. matches[1], holds the first complete match of the regex. Subsequent keys hold the respective capture groups. For example: Let regex = "You have (\d+) gold and (\d+) silver" and the text from the MUD = "You have 5 gold and 7 silver coins in your bag." Then matches[1] contains "You have 5 gold and 7 silver", matches[2] = "5" and matches[3] = "7". In your script you could do:

myGold = myGold + tonumber( matches[2] )
mySilver = mySilver + tonumber( matches[3] )
However, if you’d like to use this script in the context of a multiline trigger, matches[] would not be defined as there are more than one regex. You need to use multimatches[n][m] in multiline triggers. Above script would look like this if above regex would be the first regex in the multiline trigger:

myGold = myGold + tonumber( multimatches[1][2] );
mySilver = mySilver + tonumber( multimatches[1][3] );
What makes multiline triggers really shine is the ability to react to MUD output that is spread over multiple lines and only fire the action (=run the script) if all conditions have been fulfilled within a specified amount of lines.

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