Re: Lua 5.2 Length Operator and tables (bug?)

[Robert Virding <robert.virding@...>]

I think the main problem is that you cannot "see" from the value of #t is a proper sequence or not, or if there is a proper subsequence. #t always returns a "valid looking" result even if the table is not valid table and the value is basically meaningless. To me that is the problem.

Robert

----- Original Message -----
> Op 17 april 2012 17:17 heeft Coda Highland <chighland@gmail.com> het
> volgende geschreven:
> >> Maybe (I dunno) it would be good to also habe a table.len
> >> function,
> >> which does a slow but reliable count for all types of tables, but
> >> of
> >> course the # operator still has a valuable place.
> >
> > This was exactly what I was thinking, and it's a good idea. Have
> > table.len() iterate over the full (internally-allocated) length of
> > the
> > array part of the table and... what, return the highest index?
> > return
> > the number of non-nil elements? Which would be better?
> >
> Why not both?
> 
> Since this thread seems intent on plodding through the well-trodden
> paths
> yet again, I'd like to point out (not for the first time) that you
> don't need
> to persuade LHF or Roberto to put these in Lua 5.3 or Lua 6.0.
> 
> Nothing and nobody stops you from doing this:
> 
> function table.count(tbl)
>    local c=0
>    for k in pairs(tbl) do c=c+1 end
>    return c
> end
> 
> function table.last(tbl)
>    local c=nil
>    for k in pairs(tbl) do if type(k)=='number' and k>=(c or k) then
>    c=k end end
>    return c
> end
> 
> a={10,20,30,nil,-6,[400]=true}
> print(table.count(a),table.last(a)) --> 5 400
> 
> In fact, that's what they want you to do.  Here is a quote from the
> 5.2 manual:
> 
> > Function table.maxn is deprecated. Write it in Lua if you really
> > need it.
> 
>