Text API

This library allows to work with text data in different ways: to serialize/deserialize tables, to wrap and limit strings, to obtain Braille font chars or to search data in UTF-8 format.

Contents
text.serialize
text.deserialize
text.wrap
text.limit
text.brailleChar
text.unicodeFind

text.serialize(table table[, boolean pretty, int recursionDepth, string indentator]): string result

Serializes given table to a string. If pretty argument is passed then serialization result will be more human-readable, by default it's set to false. Notice that pretty argument performs several additional checks on the type of keys and table values, and also generates the line break after each value. Therefore, use it only if the readability of the result is in priority over performance.

The recursionDepth argument is responsible to depth of sub-table serialization calls, by default it's set to infinity. Finally, the indentator argument represents a string which will be used for indentation in pretty mode, by default it's set to " ". Here is example of serialization:

local myTable = {
	"Hello",
	"world",
	abc = 123,
	def = "456",
	ghi = {
		jkl = true,
	}
}

table.serialize(myTable)
table.serialize(myTable, true)

> {[1]="Hello",[2]="world",["abc"]=123,["def"]="456",["ghi"]={["jkl"]=true}}

> {
    "Hello",
    "world",
    abc = 123,
    def = "456",
    ghi = {
      jkl = true,
    }
  }

text.deserialize(string serializedTable): table or nil result, string reason

Deserializes string representation of Lua table and returns result. Returns table result on success, nil and reason message otherwise:

table.deserialize("{ abc = 123 }")

> {
    abc = 123
  }

text.wrap(string or table value, int wrapWidth): table result

Wraps a string or table of strings by given width and returns wrapped result as a table. If the size of a single word exceeds the specified length, the word will be "cut" into its constituent parts. Newline \n characters are also supported:

local data = "Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea."

text.wrap(data, 24)

Those days, the Third
Age of Middle-earth,
are now long past, and
the shape of all lands
has been changed; but
the regions in which
Hobbits then lived were
doubtless the same as
those in which they
still linger: the
North-West of the Old
World, east of the Sea.

text.limit(string value, int width, string mode, boolean noDots ): string result

Limits a string by inserting the "…" symbol in the correct location and returning the result:

text.limit("HelloBeautifulWorld", 10, "left")
text.limit("HelloBeautifulWorld", 10, "center")
text.limit("HelloBeautifulWorld", 10, "right")

…ifulWorld
Hello…orld
HelloBeau…

text.brailleChar(var a, var b, var c, boolean d, var e, var f, var g, var h): string result

Returns a braille char with sub-pixels set dependent of arguments. If argument is not nil, then pixel will be enabled. Every 2 arguments is a horizontal row of 2 Braille pixels:

text.brailleChar(
  1, 0,
  0, 1,
  0, 1,
  1, 0
)

> ⡱

text.unicodeFind(...): ...

The method is equivalent to string.find(...), however it allows to work with unicode. Nice thing for a non-english speaking people!