Re: string:sub

[WU Jun <quark@...>]

-1 means the last char.
0 means the position before the first char.

s="123456789"
s:sub(-3,-1) -- "789", last three chars.
s:sub(1,1) -- "1", first char to first char
s:sub(2,-2) -- "2345678", second char to the char before last one.
s:sub(1,0) -- "", nothing

If a is negative, s:sub(a, b) is the same as s:sub(a+#s+1, b).
If b is negative, s:sub(a, b) is the same as s:sub(a, b+#s+1).
It makes sense.

Python uses -1 indicating the last element in lists as well:
a=[111,222,333] # a is a list
a[-1] # last one, 333
a[-3] # 111

On 03/06/2010 08:29 AM, David Burgess wrote:
> It seems to me that negative values of string.sub() are inconsistent
> with not only the first parameter but also with string.find().
>
> Examples:
>
>  >s="123456789"
>  >=s:sub(-1)
> 9
>  >=s:sub(1,0)
>
>  >=s:sub(1,-1)
> 123456789
>  >=s:sub(1,-2)
> 12345678
>  >=s:find("56")
> 5 6
>  >=s:sub(1,6-2)
> 1234
>  >=s:sub(-1)
> 9
>
> I am boldly suggesting that the second parameter with negative indices
> behave the same as the first. I guess this implies that the value 0 for
> the second parameter would return the length of the string.
> Maybe I have used too many similar functions in other languages but -1
> meaning the last character seems intuitive to me.
>
> Anyone else of a like view?
>
> DB