📄 Working with Text Files

CLua includes simple functions for reading and writing text files in various encodings. All file operations are restricted to the program's directory — working outside its structure is not allowed.

💾 Saving Text to a File

SaveFile("data/test.txt", "File content", Encoding.UTF8);

• The first parameter is the relative file path.
• The second is the text content.
• The third specifies the encoding (see the table below).

📥 Loading a Text File

local content = LoadFile("data/test.txt", Encoding.UTF8);

• Returns the file content as a string.
• If encoding is not specified, automatic detection is attempted.

🔎 Checking if a File Exists

if FileExists("data/test.txt") then
    print("File exists!");
end;

• Returns a boolean value.

🧾 Available Encodings

Encoding = {
  ANSI = "ansi", 
  UTF8 = "utf8",
  UTF8BOM = "utf8bom",
  UTF16 = "utf16", 
  UTF16LE = "utf16le", 
  UTF16BE = "utf16be",
  Unicode = "utf16le" -- Alias
};

🔠 Special Characters

CR     = string.char(13); -- CR - \r (Line end on pre-OSX Mac)
LF     = string.char(10); -- LF - \n (Line end on Unix/macOS)
CRLF   = CR .. LF;        -- CR + LF - \r\n (Line end on Windows)
t      = string.char(9);  -- Tab
Q      = string.char(34); -- "
a      = string.char(39); -- '

📁 Listing Files in a Directory

local files = GetFiles("data/units")
-- returns a table of filenames in the given folder

local files = GetFiles("data/units", "lua")
-- filter by extension (without the dot)

local files = GetFiles("data/units", "lua", true)
-- strip extensions from returned names

• The first parameter is the relative path to the folder.
• The second parameter (optional) filters results by file extension.
• The third parameter (optional, default false) — if true, file extensions are stripped from the returned names.
• Returns an empty table if the directory does not exist.
• Files are returned as names only (not full paths).

📂 Listing Subdirectories

local dirs = GetDirs("data")
-- returns a table of subdirectory names inside the given folder

• The parameter is the relative path to the folder.
• Returns an empty table if the directory does not exist.
• Returns directory names only (not full paths).

Note: These functions cannot operate on files outside the program directory (for security reasons).