Re: Static validation of Lua String Patterns?

[Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>]

2017-04-21 10:09 GMT+02:00 steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@gmail.com>:

> I have a use case where it's important to guarantee that a lua string
> pattern is valid up front.
> (The use case is providing a Rust binding to the Lua pattern code -
> like Go, panicking in library code is considered very bad form, and
> passing on errors complicates the whole API.)
>
> Generally we only know when the pattern is actually used, but has
> there been any prior work on static validation?  Before I start
> hacking, that is ;)

Is there such a thing as a pattern whose validity depends on what
string it is being applied to? If not, pcall(string.match, pattern, "")
should be adequate to test validity.