LuaTeX: Split path string for use in macros

Question

I would like to parse a path in Lua in order to split it into its folder and file components. The goal is to create a macro that accepts an argument of the form myfolder/myfile and be able to use myfolderinside the lua block in order to put it into other macros.

The following does not work but is supposed to showcase what I seek:

\newcommand*{\splitme}[1]{\directlua{
    local parts=split(#1,'[\\/]+');
    tex.sprint("\graphicspath{",parts[1],"}");
}}

I checked out http://lua-users.org/wiki/SplitJoin but could not piece it together in LuaLaTeX. Is it possible though without too much hassle?

Answer 1

In such cases StackOverflow can be helpful.

\documentclass{article}

% https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5243179
\newcommand*{\splitme}[1]{\directlua{\unexpanded{
    local parts = string.match([[#1]], "(.-)([^\\/]-)$")
    tex.sprint(parts)
    %tex.sprint("\graphicspath{",parts,"}")
}}}

\begin{document}

\splitme{/home/user/test.jpg}

\splitme{/home/user/}

\splitme{/home/user}

% Print the backslash
\def\\{\textbackslash}

\splitme{C:\\home\\user\\test.jpg}

\splitme{C:\\home\\user\\}

\splitme{C:\\home\\user}

\end{document}

Answer 2

Since I'm not very familiar with lua nor LuaLaTeX here is some lua code, which should return the substring:

local i = 0
local p = 0
while i <= in_string:len() do
    if in_string:sub(i,i) == "/" then
        p = i
    end
    i = i + 1
end
return in_string:sub(0,p)

There might be a much simpler solution making use of the capabilities of lua, but since I don't know these, this is what I would have done.

Answer 3

If you just need / (and you shouldn't ever need \ as a path separator in latex) then the format already has a filename parser for this:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand\splitme[1]{\filename@parse{#1}\filename@area}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\splitme{/home/user/test.jpg}

\splitme{/home/user/}

\splitme{/home/user}


\end{document}