Evaluating a string as a Lua Value

["Peter Loveday" <peter@...>]

Greetings.

I have a string containing a Lua value; this will likely be a table (though 
may not be), and in some cases may be a very large string (ie quite a few 
megabytes).  I want to effectively execute this string so as to get the 
value of it in a Lua variable; but the string will not have 'return' or 
anything on the beginning.  eg, it may simply appear as:

"{ x = 7, y = 5}"

Is there an efficient way that I can interpret a string as a Lua value, 
without having to copy the string in order to prepent a 'return' or 'val ='?

Thanks.

Love, Light and Peace,
- Peter Loveday
Director of Development, eyeon Software