read

read ([FILEHANDLE,] [FORMAT1,…])

Reads flle _INPUT (or filehandle, if given) ac formats. For each format, a string (or a number) is characters read, or nil if it cannot read data with th The available formats are:

• *n
• reads a number, and returns a number **
• *l
• reads the next line (skipping the end of line), or nil on EOF (default behaviour)
• *a
• reads the whole flle, starting at the current position.On EOF, it returns an empty string
• *w
• reads the next word (maximal sequence of non-whitespace characters), skipping spaces if necessary, or nil on EOF.
• number
• reads a string with up to that number of characters, or nil on EOF