What is the difference between tables and metatables in Corona? What are the types of metatables? How and where can I use them? What is the main purpose of using tables and metatables?
Tables in Lua are the main data type you can use to create dynamic, structured data. Other languages have arrays, lists, dictionaries (key-value storage), in Lua you only have tables. The only operations you can do with a basic table is indexing and storing a value using the tab[key]
syntax, i.e.:
local tab = {}
tab['key1'] = 'Hello' -- storing a value using a string key
tab.key2 = 'World' -- this is syntax sugar, equivalent to previous
print(tab.key1, tab['key2']) -- indexing, the syntax is interchangable
You cannot do anything else with basic tables, for example adding them:
local v1={x=0,y=0}
local v2={x=1,y=1}
print(v1+v2)
--> stdin:1: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'v1' (a table value)
A metatable allows you to modify the behavior of tables, to specify what should be done when tables are added, multiplied, concatenated (..
), etc. A metatable is just a table, which contains functions with special keys, also called metamethods. You can assign a metatable to a table using setmetatable()
. For example:
local Vector = {} -- this will be the metatable for vectors
function Vector.__add(v1, v2) -- what to do when vectors are added
-- create a new table and assign it a Vector metatable
return setmetatable({x=v1.x+v2.x, y=v1.y+v2.y}, Vector)
end
function Vector.__tostring(v) -- how a vector should be displayed
-- this is used by tostring() and print()
return '{x=' .. v.x .. ',y=' .. v.y .. '}'
end
local v1 = setmetatable({x=1, y=2}, Vector)
local v2 = setmetatable({x=3, y=4}, Vector)
-- vectors are added and the resulting vector is printed
print(v1 + v2) --> {x=4,y=6}
If you want to understand metatables better, you should definitely read the Programming in Lua chapter on metatables.