How would I grab a select amount of letters from a string?

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

Hello there,

I am trying to make a function that would grab a select amount of letters from a string. If you don’t get what I mean, let’s say we have the word DINOSAUR. The function will generate a random number from 1 to 3. For example, let’s say it generated 2. Then, I want it to grab 2 letters from DINOSAUR, so it can only grab DI, IN, NO, OS, SA, AU, UR

I have tried splitting the string into a table, but I don’t know where to go from there.
If anyone could help, that would be great.

Cheers,
somejtohguyman

[hbgnhu (CrimKing)]

local str = "Dinosaur"
local split = str:split("")
local rand = math.random(1,3)
local newstr = split[rand] .. split[rand+1]

First you start off with the base string, then split it to get all of the letters in a table, then pick the splits from a table

[BirdieI90 (Ping)]

@somejtohguyman

For example, let’s say it generated 2. Then, I want it to grab 2 letters from DINOSAUR, so it can only grab DI, IN, NO, OS, SA, AU, UR

local function Split(String, Amount)
	local Table = {}

	for Sub=1, #String, Amount do
		table.insert(Table, string.sub(String, Sub, Sub + 1))
	end

	return Table
end

print(Split("Dinosaur", math.random(1, 3)))

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

@hbgnhu

local str = "Dinosaur"
local split = str:split("")
local rand = math.random(1,3)
local newstr = split[rand] .. split[rand+1]

Only picked Di, in, and no
chars

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

@BirdieI90

local function Split(String, Amount)
	local Table = {}

	for Sub=1, #String, Amount do
		table.insert(Table, string.sub(String, Sub, Sub + 1))
	end

	return Table
end

print(Split("Dinosaur", math.random(1, 3)))

Quite buggy…

Once it did Di, no, sa, ur (NOT WANTED) and once it did DI, IN, NO, OS, SA, AU, UR, R. Notice the last lettter it gave me

[BirdieI90 (Ping)]

local function Split(String, Amount)
	local Table = {}

	for Sub=1, #String, 1 do
		table.insert(Table, string.sub(String, Sub, Sub + (Amount - 1)))
	end

	return Table
end

print(Split("Dinosaur", 2))

is this the results you wanted

   ▼  {
    [1] = "Di",
    [2] = "in",
    [3] = "no",
    [4] = "os",
    [5] = "sa",
    [6] = "au",
    [7] = "ur",
    [8] = "r",
}

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

No, but I managed to get what I wanted. If anyone needs the function here it is:

function generatePrompt()
	local selected
	local letters = math.random(1, 3)
	
	repeat
		selected = dic[math.random(#dic)] --dic is an array of words
	until #selected > letters
	
	selected = string.split(selected, "")
	
	local start = math.random(1, (#selected - (letters - 1)))
	local prompt = selected[start]
	
	print(table.concat(selected, ""), letters, start)
	
	if letters == 1 then
		return prompt
	end
	
	for i = 1, letters - 1 do
		prompt ..= selected[start + i]
	end
	
	return prompt
end

[msix29]

string.sub(str, start, end)

Or

string.sub(str, start, start + n)  -- where n is the number of letters you need. 

[hbgnhu (CrimKing)]

Didn’t you only want 3 chars?

(30)

[Eestlane771]

?
Why are these answers so long?

local str = "DINOSAUR"
local len = 2 -- length of piece to take from above string

local pos = math.random(#str - len + 1) -- picks a position in the string that isn't too far to the right. In this case, from 1 (position of D) to 7 (position of U), but not 8 (position of R, last letter)
local piece = string.sub(str, pos, pos + len - 1) -- extracts [len] consecutive letters from str, confident that pos+len-1 is within the length of the string
print(piece) -- DI, IN, NO, OS, SA, AU or UR, but not R or OSA or anything

edit:

local len = math.random(1, 3)

[hbgnhu (CrimKing)]

The OP chose the longest answer instead of our short ones

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

I said in the OP that I wanted to pick a random number from 1 to 3.
If you’ve ever played word bomb, you’ll understand why.

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

@Eestlane771

Why are these answers so long?

I don’t know, but if it works, it works.
The answer I chose was one that I made up without thinking too much.

[somejtohguyman (dQw4w9WgXcQ)]

However, your answer does work. Thank you for your help!