Lua parsed output in one line

Question

how do i get an output from something parsed into one line?

for example:

local input  = "56303031"
length = string.len(input)

for i = 1, length, 2 do 
  d = string.sub(input, i , i+1)
  a = string.char(tonumber(d, 16))
  print(a)
end

this prints out:

But I want it to print it out like this: V001 -> in one line.

how can i do this?

Answer 1

print adds a linebreak. Use io.write instead.

local input  = "56303031"
local length = string.len(input)

for i = 1, length, 2 do 
  local d = string.sub(input, i , i+1)
  local a = string.char(tonumber(d, 16))
  io.write(a)
end

Alternatively compose a string and print it at the end:

local input  = "56303031"
local length = string.len(input)
local str = ""
for i = 1, length, 2 do 
  local d = string.sub(input, i , i+1)
  local a = string.char(tonumber(d, 16))
  str = str .. a
end
print(a)

Or you simply use gsub to modify the string befor printing:

local input  = "56303031"
print((input:gsub("%x%x", function (x) return string.char(tonumber(x, 16)) end)))

This will replace each set of 2 hexadecimal characters in input by the character that number represents.