local a = "test -\t- moo"
function string:split(sep) -- http://l...content-available-to-author-only...s.org/wiki/SplitJoin
  local sep, fields = sep or ",", {}
  local pattern = string.format("([^%s]+)", sep)
  self:gsub(pattern, function(c) fields[#fields+1] = c end)
  return fields
end
local s = a:split("\t")
for k,v in ipairs(s) do print(v) end