Instead of using long lists of arguments in my function definitions, I prefer to pass a few fixed parameters and a table of 'additional params' like this:
function:doit( text, params )
end
This is nice as it allows me to add new named parameters later without breaking old calls.
The problem I am experiencing occurs when I try to force default values for some of the params:
function:doit( text, params )
local font = params.font or native.systemBold
local fontSize = params.fontSize or 24
local emboss = params.emboss or true
-- ...
end
The above code works fine in all cases, except where I have passed in 'false' for emboss:
doit( "Test text", { fontSize = 32, emboss = false } )
The above code will result in emboss being set to true when I really wanted false.
To be clear, what I want is for the first non-NIL value to be assigned to emboss, instead I'm getting a first non-false and non-NIL.
To combat this problem I wrote a small piece of code to find the first non-NIL value in a table and to return that:
function firstNotNil( ... )
for i = 1, #arg do
local theArg = arg[i]
if(theArg ~= nil) then return theArg end
end
return nil
end
Using this function I would re-write the emboss assignment as follows:
local emboss = firstNotNil(params.emboss, true)
Now, this certainly works, but it seems so inefficient and over the top. I am hoping there is a more compact way of doing this.
Please note: I found this ruby construct which looked promising and I am hoping lua has something like it:
[c,b,a].detect { |i| i > 0 } -- Assign first non-zero in order: c,b,a
Lua's relational operators evaluate to the value of one of the operands (i.e. the value is not coerced to boolean) so you can get the equivalent of C's ternary operator by saying a and b or c. In your case, you want to use a if it's not nil and b otherwise, so a == nil and b or a:
local emboss = (params.emboss == nil) and true or params.emboss
Not as pretty as before, but you'd only need to do it for boolean parameters.
[snip - Lua code]
Now, this certainly works, but it seems so inefficient and over the top.
Please note: I found this ruby construct which looked promising and I am hoping lua has
something like it:
[c,b,a].detect { |i| i > 0 } -- Assign first non-zero in order: c,b,a
Your Lua function is no more over-the-top or inefficient. The Ruby construct is more succinct, in terms of source text, but the semantics are not really different from firstNotNil(c,b,a). Both constructs end up creating a list object, initialize it with a set of values, running that through a function that searches the list linearly.
In Lua you could skip the creation of the list object by using vararg expression with select:
function firstNotNil(...)
for i = 1, select('#',...) do
local theArg = select(i,...)
if theArg ~= nil then return theArg end
end
return nil
end
I am hoping there is a more compact way of doing this.
About the only way to do that would be to shorten the function name. ;)
If you really want to do it in a single line, you'll need something like this for a default value of true:
local emboss = params.emboss or (params.emboss == nil)
It's not very readable, but it works. (params.emboss == nil) evaluates to true when params.emboss is not set (when you would need a default value), otherwise it's false. So when params.emboss is false, the statement is false, and when it's true, the statement is true (true or false = true).
For a default of false, what you tried originally would work:
local emboss = params.emboss or false
Related
I've been getting really confused with this app I'm building. I'm trying to pass a parameter to a different scene. When I try to access the passed in value from the new scene, I can't use it. I keep getting the error "bad argument #1 to 'find' (string expected, got table)"
When I try to convert the value from a table to string, I get "bad argument #1 to 'concat' (table expected, got string)". I'm pretty new to Lua, so any help would be very appreciated. Here is some relevant code.
Scene1:
local function gotoOpt()
scene:removeEventListener( "create", scene )
local customParams = {
var1 = "scene3"
}
composer.gotoScene( "scene2", { effect="fade", time=1, params=customParams })
end
Scene2:
function scene:create( event )
local sceneGroup = self.view
print(event.params.var1 == string)
print(event.params.var1 == table)
print(type(event.params.var1))
print(type(event.params.var1) == string)
end
The results of the four print commands are as follows:
false
false
string
false
I cant really say anything about your problems with find and concat without seeing how you use them, although for me I've got problems in the past when mixing up sting.find and :find, which CAN give some of those errors.
But regarding types, type(something) returns a string indicating a type ("string", "boolean", "table", etc), so any comparisons need to compare to a string to be true, which is why your type comparisons return false when you don't expect it.
This is a weird question as I'm not so sure how to ask, but here's the problem:
BeforeTime = os.clock()
function NewFunction( Name, Value )
Name = function()
return Value
end
end
NewFunction( RunningTime, (os.clock()-BeforeTime) )
while true do
print(RunningTime()) -- will always return same value, i want the updated
end
The example above is not exactly my context, but its the easiest way to explain my problem.
I guess I could require that the parameter 'Value' needs to be a function, but is there another way?
NewFunction creates a function and assigns it to the Name parameter. But, in Lua, actual parameters are passed by value (like Java and C) and formal parameters are effectively local variables. The assigned value is never used and it can't be used outside the function.
To make a function return a non-empty list of values, use a return statement.
Here's a similar function for a timer:
local function CreateTimer()
local BeforeTime = os.clock()
return function()
return os.clock() - BeforeTime
end
end
You can use it like this:
local RunningTime = CreateTimer()
while true do
print(RunningTime())
end
Your code does not run because NewFunction doesn't do what you think it should.
If you add the line below before the loop, then it works fine.
RunningTime = function() return (os.clock()-BeforeTime) end
I have a function foo that can get nil values under certain circumstances, i.e. foo(VarA) while VarA is undefined. This undefined VarA should get interpreted as "VarA" but I can't invoke foo("VarA") because VarA should act as an option param (different from normal string params).
mt = {__index = function(t, k) return k end}
setmetatable(_G, mt)
This would get the desired result but now every other undefined variable would return its name. Like abc -> "abc". Do you see any way to only have a metatable active in this specific case? I could switch metatables in my foo method but when I'm in the foo block, the passed param is already nil and its too late.
Appendix: I think the question was not specific enough. Schollii's answer to pass params as a table was good but does not work as intended:
foo({option1 = delete, option2 = push})
This should have the key information (option1 and option2) plus the information of the value (even though delete and push do not exist in global or local namespace). Schollii's approach would give me the key information but not the value information (like "delete" and "push"). I can't define delete and push beforehand because these new "key-words" should get defined by the function itself later on. Passing those new keywords as a string is no option.
It seems like you are developing a domain-specific language within Lua. If that is your intent and you are successful, great. Otherwise, it would be better to stick to more a typical Lua programming style.
Similar to other suggestions:
-- lets the caller decide on the scope of varA
-- and the default string
foo(varA or "varA")
All you need is to test for nil and set VarA's value to its name:
function yourFunc(VarA)
VarA = VarA or "VarA" -- if VarA is nil, it becomes the string "VarA"
... use VarA ...
end
However, you say that VarA should act as an option parameter. I gather you mean that VarA is optional. OK, but Lua does not support named arguments in function calls so if you have
function yourFunc(arg1, arg2, optArg1, optArg2)
...
end
then in order to call yourFunc with optArg2=something, you have to set optArg1 to nil:
yourFunc(1, 2, nil, 3)
In other words you can't do yourFunc(1,2,optArg2=3) which would be pretty neat. But you can get pretty close by having yourFunc accept a table instead of a list of parameters:
function setOptionalArgs(tbl, defaults)
for i,v in ipairs(defaults) do
if tbl[v] == nil then
tbl[v] = v
end
end
for k,v in pairs(defaults) do
if tbl[k] == nil then
tbl[k] = v
end
end
end
function yourFunc(args)
setOptionalArgs(args, {'arg1', arg2=2, 'arg3'})
-- ... use args.arg1, args.arg2 etc ...
print(args.arg1, args.arg2, args.arg3)
end
yourFunc {}
Now you can call
yourFunc {arg1=1}
which will automatically have arg2="arg2". Note that to be clean you should modify setOptionalArgs so only non-array keys get inserted in second loop.
When call a lua function like
PrintMe(MyVariableName)
I would like to be able to actually print "MyVariableName" and not it's value(well, for demo purposes).
Obviously I could just pass the string but that requires extra quotes and I also would like to print it's value.
e.g.,
MyVariable = 4
PrintVariable(MyVariable)
Would print "MyVariable is 4" or whatever
I do not want to have to duplicate the name and variable like
PrintVariable(MyVariable, "MyVariable")
as this is unnecessary duplication.
Can lua handle it?
What I'm doing now is passing the variable name in quotes and using loadstring to get the value but I would like to just pass the variable directly without the extra unnecessary quotes(which I thought debug.getlocal did but it ends up returning the value instead of the name).
Here is mock example
function printme1(var, val)
print(var.." = "..val)
end
function printme2(v)
local r
loadstring("r = "..v)() -- equivalent to r = a but must be used since v is a string representing a and not the object a
print(v.." = "..tostring(r))
end
function printme3(v)
-- unknown
end
a = 3
printme1("a", a)
printme2("a")
printme3(a)
In this case all 3 should print the same thing. printme3 obviously is the most convenient.
You can't say PrintVariable(MyVariable), because Lua gives you no way of determining which variable (if any; a constant could have been used) was used to pass an argument to your function. However, you can say PrintVariable('MyVariable') then used the debug API to look for a local variable in the caller's scope which has that name:
function PrintVariable(name)
-- default to showing the global with that name, if any
local value = _G[name]
-- see if we can find a local in the caller's scope with that name
for i=1,math.huge do
local localname, localvalue = debug.getlocal(2,i,1)
if not localname then
break -- no more locals to check
elseif localname == name then
value = localvalue
end
end
if value then
print(string.format("%s = %s", name, tostring(value)))
else
print(string.format("No variable named '%s' found.", name))
end
end
Now you can say:
PrintVariable('MyVariable')
While in this case will print "MyVariable = 4".
Not, if you really want to do this without the quotes, you could check the caller's locals for variables that have a supplied value, but that's occasionally going to give you the wrong variable name if there is more than one variable in the caller's scope with a given value. With that said, here's how you'd do that:
function PrintVariable(value)
local name
-- see if we can find a local in the caller's scope with the given value
for i=1,math.huge do
local localname, localvalue = debug.getlocal(2,i,1)
if not localname then
break
elseif localvalue == value then
name = localname
end
end
-- if we couldn't find a local, check globals
if not name then
for globalname, globalvalue in pairs(_G) do
if globalvalue == value then
name = globalname
end
end
end
if name then
print(string.format("%s = %s", name, tostring(value)))
else
print(string.format("No variable found for the value '%s'.", tostring(value)))
end
end
Now you can say PrintVariable(MyVariable), but if there happened to be another variable in the caller's scope with the value 4, and it occurred before MyVariable, it's that variable name that will be printed.
you can do stuff like this with the debug library... something like this does what you seem to be looking for:
function a_func(arg1, asdf)
-- if this function doesn't use an argument... it shows up as (*temporary) in
-- calls to debug.getlocal() because they aren't used...
if arg1 == "10" then end
if asdf == 99 then end
-- does stuff with arg1 and asdf?
end
-- just a function to dump variables in a user-readable format
function myUnpack(tbl)
if type(tbl) ~= "table" then
return ""
end
local ret = ""
for k,v in pairs(tbl) do
if tostring(v) ~= "" then
ret = ret.. tostring(k).. "=".. tostring(v).. ", "
end
end
return string.gsub(ret, ", $", "")
end
function hook()
-- passing 2 to to debug.getinfo means 'give me info on the function that spawned
-- this call to this function'. level 1 is the C function that called the hook.
local info = debug.getinfo(2)
if info ~= nil and info.what == "Lua" then
local i, variables = 1, {""}
-- now run through all the local variables at this level of the lua stack
while true do
local name, value = debug.getlocal(2, i)
if name == nil then
break
end
-- this just skips unused variables
if name ~= "(*temporary)" then
variables[tostring(name)] = value
end
i = i + 1
end
-- this is what dumps info about a function thats been called
print((info.name or "unknown").. "(".. myUnpack(variables).. ")")
end
end
-- tell the debug library to call lua function 'hook 'every time a function call
-- is made...
debug.sethook(hook, "c")
-- call a function to try it out...
a_func("some string", 2012)
this results in the output:
a_func(asdf=2012, arg1=some string)
you can do fancier stuff to pretty this up, but this basically covers how to do what you're asking.
I have bad news, my friend. You can access function parameter names as they appear at the top of the function, but the data to access exactly what they were named in the calling function does not exist. See the following:
function PrintVariable(VariableToPrint)
--we can use debug.getinfo() to determine the name 'VariableToPrint'
--we cannot determine the name 'MyVariable' without some really convoluted stuff (see comment by VBRonPaulFan on his own answer)
print(VariableToPrint);
end
MyVariable = 4
PrintVariable(MyVariable)
To illustrate this, imagine if we had done:
x = 4
MyVariable = x
MyOtherVariable = x
x = nil
PrintVariable(MyVariable)
Now if you were Lua, what name would you attach in the metadata to the variable that ends up getting passed to the function? Yes, you could walk up the stack with debug.getint() looking for the variable that was passed in, but you may find several references.
Also consider:
PrintVariable("StringLiteral")
What would you call that variable? It has a value but no name.
You could just use this form:
local parms = { "MyVariable" }
local function PrintVariable(vars)
print(parms[1]..": "..vars[1])
end
local MyVariable = "bar"
PrintVariable{MyVariable}
Which gives:
MyVariable: bar
It isn't generic, but it is simple. You avoid the debug library and loadstring by doing it this way. If your editor is any good, you could write a macro to do it.
Another possible solution is add this facility your self.
The Lua C API and source is pretty simple and extendable.
I/we don't know the context of your project/work but if you ARE making/embedding your own Lua build you could extend the debug library with something to do this.
Lua passes it's values by reference, but unknown offhand if these contain a string name in them and if so if easily accessible.
In your example the value declaration is the same as:
_G["MyVariable"] = 4
Since it's global. If it were declared local then like others stated here you can enumerate those via debug.getlocal(). But again in the C context of the actual reference context it might not matter.
Implement a debug.getargumentinfo(...) that extends the argument table with name key, value pairs.
This is quite an old topic and I apologize for bringing it back to life.
In my experience with lua, the closest I know to what the OP asked for is something like this:
PrintVariable = {}
setmetatable(PrintVariable, {__index = function (self, k, v) return string.format('%s = %s', k, _G[k]) end})
VAR = 0
VAR2 = "Hello World"
print(PrintVariable.VAR, PrintVariable.VAR2)
-- Result: VAR = 0 VAR2 = Hello World
I do not give more explanation, because the code is quite readable, however:
What happens here is simple, you only set a metatable to the PrintVariable variable and add the __index metamethod that is called when the table is forced to search for a value in its index, thanks to this functionality you can achieve what you see in the example.
Reference: https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html
I hope that future and new visitors will find this helpful.
For example, I have a table
table.insert( t, 1, function()
print ("rock");
end );
Is there any way to get function name from this table. I know that I can store name like a key, but what if I want to keep numeric index and also I want to know function name?
Is there any way to do it?
Thanks, on advance.
Say you have this code:
t = {}
x = 5
table.insert(t, 1, x)
t would then be {[1] = 5}. "5" is just a number - it has no name, and isn't associated with the variable "x"; it's a value.
In Lua, functions are treated exactly the same way, as values:
t = {}
x = function() print("test! :D") end
table.insert(t, 1, x)
The value of x is not associated with x in any way, shape, or form. If you want to manually name a function, you can do it by wrapping the function in a table, for example:
t = {}
x = function() print("test! :D") end
table.insert(t, 1, {
name = "MyFunctionName",
func = x
})
That is how you would do it!
...unless..
..you break the rules!
When Lua was developed, the developers realised that the anonymous nature of functions would make productive error messages difficult to produce, if not impossible.
The best thing you'd see would be:
stdin: some error!
stdin: in function 'unknown'
stdin: in function 'unknown'
So, they made it so that when Lua code was parsed, it would record some debug information, to make life easier. To access this information from Lua itself, the debug library is provided.
Be very careful with functions in this library.
You should exert care when using this library. The functions provided here should be used exclusively for debugging and similar tasks, such as profiling. Please resist the temptation to use them as a usual programming tool: they can be very slow. Moreover, several of these functions violate some assumptions about Lua code (e.g., that variables local to a function cannot be accessed from outside or that userdata metatables cannot be changed by Lua code) and therefore can compromise otherwise secure code.
To achieve your desired effect, you must use the debug.getinfo function; an example:
x = function()
print("test!")
print(debug.getinfo(1, "n").name)
end
x() -- prints "test!" followed by "x"
Unfortunately, the form of debug.getinfo that operates directly on a function doesn't fill the name argument (debug.getinfo(x, "n").name == nil) and the version above requires you to run the function.
It seems hopeless!
...unless..
..you really break the rules.
The debug.sethook function allows you to interrupt running Lua code at certain events, and even change things while it's all happening. This, combined with coroutines, allows you to do some interestingly hacky stuff.
Here is an implementation of debug.getfuncname:
function debug.getfuncname(f)
--[[If name found, returns
name source line
If name not found, returns
nil source line
If error, returns
nil nil error
]]
if type(f) == "function" then
local info = debug.getinfo(f, "S")
if not info or not info.what then
return nil, nil, "Invalid function"
elseif info.what == "C" then
-- cannot be called on C functions, as they would execute!
return nil, nil, "C function"
end
--[[Deep magic, look away!]]
local co = coroutine.create(f)
local name, source, linedefined
debug.sethook(co, function(event, line)
local info = debug.getinfo(2, "Sn")
name = info.namewhat ~= "" and info.name or nil
source, linedefined = info.short_src, info.linedefined
coroutine.yield() -- prevent function from executing code
end, "c")
coroutine.resume(co)
return name, source, linedefined
end
return nil, nil, "Not a function"
end
Example usage:
function test()
print("If this prints, stuff went really wrong!")
end
print("Name = ", debug.getfuncname(test))
This function isn't very reliable - it works sometimes, and doesn't others. The debug library is very touchy, so it's to be expected.
Note that you should never use this for actual release code! Only for debugging!
The most extreme case that is still acceptable is logging errors on piece of released software, to help the developer fix issues. No vital code should depend on functions from the debug library.
Good luck!
The function hasn't got any name. If you want you can assign it to a named variable:
theFunction = t[1]
-- Call it:
theFunction()
If what you want is storing a named function to the table, define it beforehand and use its name to store it:
theFunction = function()
print ("rock");
end
table.insert(t, 1, theFunction)
If this is not what you meant, give more details; for example how you would like to access the function. You're question is a bit misty.
The thing is table.insert considers the table as a sequence, only with numeric keys.
If you want to be able to call the function as t.fun() you'll have to use the table as an associative array and hence use a string as key. (BTW any type except nil or NaN are allowed as key)
t={}
t['MyFun']=function print'foo' end
t.myFun() -- uses syntactic sugar for string keys that are valid identifiers.
You might also notice that functions are passed by reference. So all functions are actually anonymous, and are just stored as a value to a certain key or variable.
You can store the names in a separate table.
functions = {}
functionNames = {}
function addFunction(f, name)
table.insert(functions, f)
functionNames[name] = f
end
To get the function, you can use the index. Once you have the function, you can get its name from function_names:
f = functions[3]
name = functionNames[f]
Good luck!