Re: How does lua store data in a table?

[Tom N Harris <telliamed@...>]

On 03/30/2012 05:13 AM, Patrick Rapin wrote:
> The hash array is by nature unsorted. It is impossible to get back the
> same order as the construction.
> If you need it, you must use numeric indexes (a sequence), or an
> associated array with keys order.

If you only intend to use strings for primary keys, then you can use 
integer keys to specify the order.

mydata = {
  key1 = "value1",
  key2 = "value2",
  -- I'm writing the integer indexes to be explicit,
  -- but they're not required as Lua will assign to
  -- consecutive integers by itself
  [1] = "key1",
  [2] = "key2"
}

for n,k in ipairs(mydata) do -- `for n=1,#mydata do' works too
  print(k, mydata[k])
end


--
- tom
telliamed@whoopdedo.org