Lua string.gsub text between pattern

Question

How would I extract in Lua a text between a pattern. For example

s="this is a test string. <!2014-05-03 23:12:08!> something more"

1. I would need only the date/time as result: 2014-05-03 23:12:08
print(string.gsub(s, "%<!.-%!>")) doesn't work
2. I would need all the text WITHOUT the date/time like: "this is a test string. something more"

Answer 1

The pattern "<!.-!>" works, but you need to use string.match to get the date/time part:

 print(string.match(s, "<!(.-)!>"))

Note that you don't need to escape ! or < in a pattern. Of course escaping them is not an error.

To get the string without the date/time part, replace it with an empty string:

local result = string.gsub(s, "<!.-!>", "")
print(result)

You can also expand the pattern .- to validate the format of date/time more:

result = string.gsub(s, "<!%d%d%d%d%-%d%d%-%d%d%s+%d%d:%d%d:%d%d!>", "")