Reading a file's data and converting it to a table

I am writing a new program for my OS. It needs to read a file, convert the data to a table and read this table to ensure that a file name is inside the file. I don't know how to do steps 1-2. Can anyone help me?

EDIT: I will now explain this program. It will register/unregister files as Assemblies (APIs). Also it will list existing Assemblies and recover the most recent backup of System Assembly Cache (libs.index). I need it for my OS.

For files, use the fs api. I don't know why you'd want to change the string returned into a table, given that there's the string.find function…

local file = fs.open( "FileToRead", "r" ) --#open the file in read mode
local data = file.readAll() --#data now contains the contents of "FileToRead"
file.close() --#always close file handles
if string.find( data, "ThingToFind" ) then
  --#aha, it's there
else
  --#nope, it's not
end

as for converting the data to a table do this:

local TableYouNeed = textutils.unserialize(data)

cheers

KingofGamesYami, on 14 April 2015 - 02:13 PM said:

For files, use the fs api. I don't know why you'd want to change the string returned into a table, given that there's the string.find function…

local file = fs.open( "FileToRead", "r" ) --#open the file in read mode
local data = file.readAll() --#data now contains the contents of "FileToRead"
file.close() --#always close file handles
if string.find( data, "ThingToFind" ) then
  --#aha, it's there
else
  --#nope, it's not
end

Will try to use!

Now I've got another problem: How do I remove a string from the file?

open the file in read mode, save content to string, remove whatever is annoying you, open file in write mode, and writethe data to it. If you want I could help you with some code.

It may be worth reading through This thread.

KingofGamesYami, on 14 April 2015 - 03:02 PM said:

It may be worth reading through This thread.

Thanks

you could also do this

local afterItGotRemoved = string.replace(beforeItGotRemoved,whatToRemove," ")

Nope, no string.replace function. Perhaps you meant string.gsub?