[FiveM] Search players based on string

search_players.lua

-- search param must be a string thats either #<server_id> or a partial player name
-- e.g SearchPlayers("#1361") or SearchPlayers("test")
-- compatible with command arguments
-- 2nd example above will match "testuser", "userTest", "TeSt", "TEST" etc

-- server-side only, you *could* modify it for client-side rather easily, though
local function SearchPlayers(search)
    
    -- initialize our return table
    local ret = {}
    
    -- loop through each player
    for _, player in ipairs(GetPlayers()) do
        
        -- if player isn't nil, then continue (sanity-check)
        if (player ~= nil) then
            
            -- get the players name
            local player_name = GetPlayerName(player)
            
            -- check if the search term is for a Server ID (prefixed with a #) or for a partial name match
            if(string.sub(search, 1, 1) == "#") then
                
                -- extract the player id from the search term
                local searchId = string.sub(search, 2)
                
                -- if the current player in the loop has the same ID as the one given in the search
                -- then insert the player into the return object
                if (player == searchId) then
                    table.insert(ret, player)
                    break
                end
            elseif (string.match(player_name:lower(), search:lower())) then
                table.insert(ret, tonumber(player))
            end
        end
    end
    
    return ret
end