Sounds like a "let me google it for you" question, but somehow I can't find an answer. The Lua #
operator only counts entries with integer keys, and so does table.getn
:
tbl = {}
tbl["test"] = 47
tbl[1] = 48
print(#tbl, table.getn(tbl)) -- prints "1 1"
count = 0
for _ in pairs(tbl) do count = count + 1 end
print(count) -- prints "2"
How do I get the number of all entries without counting them?
You already have the solution in the question -- the only way is to iterate the whole table with pairs(..)
.
function tablelength(T)
local count = 0
for _ in pairs(T) do count = count + 1 end
return count
end
Also, notice that the "#" operator's definition is a bit more complicated than that. Let me illustrate that by taking this table:
t = {1,2,3}
t[5] = 1
t[9] = 1
According to the manual, any of 3, 5 and 9 are valid results for #t
. The only sane way to use it is with arrays of one contiguous part without nil values.