Module:StringTools

local p = {}

--[=[	Similar to gmatch, but it returns the count of the match in addition to the list of captures, something like ipairs. If the pattern doesn't contain any captures, the whole match is returned. Invoke thus: for i, whole_match in require("Module:string").imatch(text, pattern) do			[ do something with i and whole_match ] end or for i, capture1[, capture2[, capture3[, ...]]] in require("Module:string").imatch(text, pattern) do			[ do something with i and capture1 ] end ]=]

function p.imatch(text, pattern, start, plain) local i = 0 local pos = start or 0 if not mw.ustring.find(pattern, "%b") then pattern = "(" .. pattern .. ")" end return function i = i + 1 local return_values = { mw.ustring.find(text, pattern, pos, plain) } local j = return_values[2] if #return_values > 0 then pos = j + 1 -- Skip the first two returned values, which are the indices of the -- whole match. return i, unpack(return_values, 3) else return nil, nil end end end

return p