Splitting Strings Based On <> and </>

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#1

How would I be able to format a string into a table based on <> and </>. For example:

local message = "Hello this is a <boom>boom effect</boom> and this is a <float>float effect</float>"

into

local MessageTable = {
     "Hello this is a ",
     "<boom>boom effect</boom>",
     " and this is a ",
     "<float>float effect</float>"
}

and then further, remove the <> and </> (for after i get the phrase from the table)

#2

This can be done with pattern matching string. Im not super familiar so there might be better ways.
You can read more about it here: String Patterns

This script assumes text inside <> will contain only characters and the text inbetween two <> * </> only contains characters and white space.

local message: string = "Hello this is a <boom>boom effect</boom> and this is a <float>float effect</float>"

-- Extract <> </>
local matches: {string} = {}
for a, _ in message:gmatch("<%w*>[%w%s]*</%w*>") do
	table.insert(matches, a)
end

local list: {string} = {}
local index = 1
for _, m in ipairs(matches) do
	local a, b = message:find(m)
	
	-- Get normal text and trim
	local normal =  message:sub(index, a-1):gsub("^%s*(.-)%s*$", "%1")
       
       -- Use this line if you dont want to remove white space from start and end of string
       --local normal =  message:sub(index, a-1)
	
	-- Make sure its not empty
	if normal ~= "" then
		table.insert(list, normal)
	end
	table.insert(list, m)
	index = b+1
end

-- Extracted string list
print(list)


-- Remove angle brackets
local newList: {string} = {}
for _, s in ipairs(list) do
	local new = s:gsub("<%w*>", ""):gsub("</%w*>", "")
	table.insert(newList, new)
end

print(newList)
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