Zugg Software :: View topic

Apprentice Joined: 27 Dec 2001 Posts: 105 Location: USA

Morning folks.

I'm stuck on a variable replacing thing I've been workin on for a couple hours now, and I was hoping I could get some pointers.

The MUD I play has a guild that can acquire a catalog for listing equipment pieces. The catalog has a limit on space, so I'm using triggers to store all of the information on an item in a text file, and aliases to recall that info to the MUD window.

The variable looks essentially like this:

[cerimonial headdress of lloth] Cerimonial Headdress of Lloth
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It increases user's constitution pitifully.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It increases user's intelligence pitifully.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It increases user's spellpoint regeneration pitifully.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It has non-existent armour class for its type (non-existent in general).
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] This item loses its magical powers with average speed.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It shines with brilliant red glow.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It emits darkness.
[cerimonial headdress of lloth] It modifies the user's ability to regenerate spell points.

As you can see, some item names are pretty lengthy, but I'm using the name in the [] brackets for searching purposes. Buuut, once it's found, I no longer need the full name in brackets, so I'm trying to strip all of the text in the [] brackets and replace it with something simpler, like:

[eqcatalog] Cerimonial Headdress of Lloth
[eqcatalog] It increases user's constitution pitifully.
[eqcatalog] It increases user's intelligence pitifully.
[eqcatalog] It increases user's spellpoint regeneration pitifully.
[eqcatalog] It has non-existent armour class for its type (non-existent in general).
[eqcatalog] This item loses its magical powers with average speed.
[eqcatalog] It shines with brilliant red glow.
[eqcatalog] It emits darkness.
[eqcatalog] It modifies the user's ability to regenerate spell points.

This is what I've come up with so far:

#var catsearch_matches %subchar( @catsearch_matches, "[%-1]", "[eqcatalog] ")

I've tried %subchar and %replace, without any real luck. It works just fine, so long as the alias argument is verbatim of the text to be removed, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to make the ~[*~] part allow pattern matching.

Ex- 'catalogsearch cerimonial headdress of lloth' with "[%-1]" has the result I want.
But 'catalogsearch lloth' with ~[*~] doesn't alter the text in []'s.

Sorry for the babbling, just hoping I can get a nod in the right direction.

Thank you for your time.

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Try using %subregex. It works based on regex pattern matching. You can use the trigger conversion to help you develop the regex pattern if your not familiar with regex.

Apprentice Joined: 27 Dec 2001 Posts: 105 Location: USA

I've been working with the regex commands, and I can get the pattern matching down for simpler patterns, but anything more complicated than a single word won't seem to match up.

Is there a wildcard regex pattern that I'm not seeing..? I see the range things, but even that doesn't seem to match a varying number of words/spaces.

I've tried every variation I can think of, like

[[a-z\s]]
[\w\s]
[[a-z]\s]

etc etc etc, to fit in the

#var catsearch_matches %subregex( @catsearch_matches, [[a-z\s]], "[eqcatalog]")

line, but I can't get a regex pattern that will match a varying line of words or spaces. It's all lowercase, but some are [one two three] words or [one two] or [a whole bunch of words].

Is there a wildcard, similar to * for zMUD, that I'm missing..?

Magician Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 358 Location: USA

In Regular Perl Expressions, the * isn't a wildcard, but says that the previous class (e.g. lower-case letters, [a-z]) may appear 0 or more times in a row.

A great resource for learning and understanding Regular Perl Expressions can be found at http://www.regular-expressions.info/reference.html

Apprentice Joined: 27 Dec 2001 Posts: 105 Location: USA

I know that * isn't the wildcard for Perl. What I'm asking is IS there a wildcard for Perl. I've read all of the helpfiles I can find, including the one you linked to, and have yet to find a solution that would match ANYthing, including letters, numbers, special characters, AND white space.

Ex- This is essentially what I want to do: "[[a-z?\s?]]"
This should match [word word], or [word word word], or [word], etc etc etc.

Apprentice Joined: 27 Dec 2001 Posts: 105 Location: USA

Perl/regex doesn't seem to have what it is I'm looking for. Is there a way to work around zMUD, so that I can force %replace to allow pattern-matching?

Something like:

#var catsearch_matches %replace( @catsearch_matches, %expand( ~[*~], -2), "[eqcatalog]")

or similar?

Magician Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 358 Location: USA

Because your match of "[[a-z?\s?]]" doesn't include a *, all it will look for is a single character that is either a lower-case letter or a space in between the [].

Try using "[(.*)]". The . will match any non-linefeed character (including letters, numbers, and spaces), and the * allows it to be matched multiple times. The addition of () makes it so the matched bit can be access by %1.

So, your trigger would look like this: