Re: function foo() in table

[Andrew Starks <andrew.starks@...>]

On Sunday, April 20, 2014, Marc Lepage <mlepage@antimeta.com> wrote:

I was wondering if there was a reason we cannot do syntax g (below) in a table. It seems like that would be handy.

t = {

    1, 2, 3,

    a='a',

    b='b',

    f=function() print 'f' end,

    function g() print 'g' end,

}

I'm sure there's a reason, I'm just curious.

Marc

Because the:

function x() end

Syntax is short for:

local x

x = function () end

Such that you can recursively call the x function by declaring the variable first. Without the prior declaration of x, a call to the function "x" within the function would result in a call to a global nil value. 

This shorthand won't work because x is a field inside your table, so declaring it in the local scope would be "broken."

-Andrew