Lua Quick Start Guide

Reading bits of data

The file handle provides a read method that can be used to read in only as much data as needed. The read method takes one argument, which is a format string, or a number. In case the argument is a number, that number represents how many characters of text to read. The following list contains all of the valid arguments for read:

• "*n" reads a number; this is the only format that returns a number instead of a string.
• "*a" reads the whole file, starting at the current position. At the end of the file, it returns the empty string.
• "*l" reads the next line (skipping the end of the line), returning nil at the end of the file. This is the default format.
• Providing any integer number, (IE: 2) reads a string with up to that number ...