Lua 5.

1 Reference Manual
by Roberto Ierusalimschy, Luiz Henrique de Figueiredo, Waldemar Celes

Copyright © 2006-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio. Freely available under the terms of the Lua license.

The reference manual is the official definition of the Lua language. For a complete
introduction to Lua programming, see the book Programming in Lua.

This manual is also available as a book:

Lua 5.1 Reference Manual

by R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, W. Celes
Lua.org, August 2006
ISBN 85-903798-3-3

Buy a copy of this book and help to support the Lua project.

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Copyright © 2006-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio. Freely available under the terms of the Lua license.

Contents
 1 - Introduction
 2 - The Language
o 2.1 - Lexical Conventions
o 2.2 - Values and Types
 2.2.1 - Coercion
o 2.3 - Variables
o 2.4 - Statements
 2.4.1 - Chunks
 2.4.2 - Blocks
 2.4.3 - Assignment
 2.4.4 - Control Structures
 2.4.5 - For Statement
 2.4.6 - Function Calls as Statements
 2.4.7 - Local Declarations
 o 2.5 - Expressions
 2.5.1 - Arithmetic Operators
 2.5.2 - Relational Operators
 2.5.3 - Logical Operators
 2.5.4 - Concatenation
 2.5.5 - The Length Operator
 2.5.6 - Precedence
 2.5.7 - Table Constructors
 2.5.8 - Function Calls
 2.5.9 - Function Definitions
o 2.6 - Visibility Rules
o 2.7 - Error Handling
o 2.8 - Metatables
o 2.9 - Environments
o 2.10 - Garbage Collection
 2.10.1 - Garbage-Collection Metamethods
 2.10.2 - Weak Tables
o 2.11 - Coroutines
 3 - The Application Program Interface
o 3.1 - The Stack
o 3.2 - Stack Size
o 3.3 - Pseudo-Indices
o 3.4 - C Closures
o 3.5 - Registry
o 3.6 - Error Handling in C
o 3.7 - Functions and Types
o 3.8 - The Debug Interface
 4 - The Auxiliary Library
o 4.1 - Functions and Types
 5 - Standard Libraries
o 5.1 - Basic Functions
o 5.2 - Coroutine Manipulation
o 5.3 - Modules
o 5.4 - String Manipulation
 5.4.1 - Patterns
o 5.5 - Table Manipulation
o 5.6 - Mathematical Functions
o 5.7 - Input and Output Facilities
o 5.8 - Operating System Facilities
o 5.9 - The Debug Library
 6 - Lua Stand-alone
 7 - Incompatibilities with the Previous Version
o 7.1 - Changes in the Language
o 7.2 - Changes in the Libraries
o 7.3 - Changes in the API
 8 - The Complete Syntax of Lua

1 - Introduction
Lua is an extension programming language designed to support general procedural
programming with data description facilities. It also offers good support for object-
oriented programming, functional programming, and data-driven programming. Lua
is intended to be used as a powerful, light-weight scripting language for any program
that needs one. Lua is implemented as a library, written in clean C (that is, in the
common subset of ANSI C and C++).

Being an extension language, Lua has no notion of a "main" program: it only works
embedded in a host client, called the embedding program or simply the host. This
host program can invoke functions to execute a piece of Lua code, can write and
read Lua variables, and can register C functions to be called by Lua code. Through
the use of C functions, Lua can be augmented to cope with a wide range of different
domains, thus creating customized programming languages sharing a syntactical
framework. The Lua distribution includes a sample host program called lua, which
uses the Lua library to offer a complete, stand-alone Lua interpreter.

Lua is free software, and is provided as usual with no guarantees, as stated in its
license. The implementation described in this manual is available at Lua's official
web site, www.lua.org.

Like any other reference manual, this document is dry in places. For a discussion of
the decisions behind the design of Lua, see the technical papers available at Lua's
web site. For a detailed introduction to programming in Lua, see Roberto's book,
Programming in Lua (Second Edition).

2 - The Language
This section describes the lexis, the syntax, and the semantics of Lua. In other
words, this section describes which tokens are valid, how they can be combined, and
what their combinations mean.

The language constructs will be explained using the usual extended BNF notation, in
which {a} means 0 or more a's, and [a] means an optional a. Non-terminals are
shown like non-terminal, keywords are shown like kword, and other terminal
symbols are shown like `=´. The complete syntax of Lua can be found in §8 at the
end of this manual.

2.1 - Lexical Conventions

Names (also called identifiers) in Lua can be any string of letters, digits, and
underscores, not beginning with a digit. This coincides with the definition of names in
most languages. (The definition of letter depends on the current locale: any
character considered alphabetic by the current locale can be used in an identifier.)
Identifiers are used to name variables and table fields.

The following keywords are reserved and cannot be used as names:

and break do else elseif

end false for function if
in local nil not or
repeat return then true until while
Lua is a case-sensitive language: and is a reserved word, but And and AND are two
different, valid names. As a convention, names starting with an underscore followed
by uppercase letters (such as _VERSION) are reserved for internal global variables
used by Lua.

The following strings denote other tokens:

+ - * / % ^ #
== ~= <= >= < > =
( ) { } [ ]
; : , . .. ...

Literal strings can be delimited by matching single or double quotes, and can contain
the following C-like escape sequences: ' \a' (bell), '\b' (backspace), '\f' (form feed),
'\n' (newline), '\r' (carriage return), '\t' (horizontal tab), '\v' (vertical tab), '\\'
(backslash), '\"' (quotation mark [double quote]), and ' \'' (apostrophe [single quote]).
Moreover, a backslash followed by a real newline results in a newline in the string. A
character in a string can also be specified by its numerical value using the escape
sequence \ddd, where ddd is a sequence of up to three decimal digits. (Note that if a
numerical escape is to be followed by a digit, it must be expressed using exactly
three digits.) Strings in Lua can contain any 8-bit value, including embedded zeros,
which can be specified as '\0'.

Literal strings can also be defined using a long format enclosed by long brackets. We
define an opening long bracket of level n as an opening square bracket followed by
n equal signs followed by another opening square bracket. So, an opening long
bracket of level 0 is written as [[, an opening long bracket of level 1 is written as [=[,
and so on. A closing long bracket is defined similarly; for instance, a closing long
bracket of level 4 is written as ]====]. A long string starts with an opening long
bracket of any level and ends at the first closing long bracket of the same level.
Literals in this bracketed form can run for several lines, do not interpret any escape
sequences, and ignore long brackets of any other level. They can contain anything
except a closing bracket of the proper level.

For convenience, when the opening long bracket is immediately followed by a

newline, the newline is not included in the string. As an example, in a system using
ASCII (in which 'a' is coded as 97, newline is coded as 10, and '1' is coded as 49),
the five literal strings below denote the same string:

a = 'alo\n123"'
a = "alo\n123\""
a = '\97lo\10\04923"'
a = [[alo
123"]]
a = [==[
alo
123"]==]
A numerical constant can be written with an optional decimal part and an optional
decimal exponent. Lua also accepts integer hexadecimal constants, by prefixing
them with 0x. Examples of valid numerical constants are

3 3.0 3.1416 314.16e-2 0.31416E1 0xff 0x56

A comment starts with a double hyphen (--) anywhere outside a string. If the text
immediately after -- is not an opening long bracket, the comment is a short
comment, which runs until the end of the line. Otherwise, it is a long comment, which
runs until the corresponding closing long bracket. Long comments are frequently
used to disable code temporarily.

2.2 - Values and Types

Lua is a dynamically typed language. This means that variables do not have types;
only values do. There are no type definitions in the language. All values carry their
own type.

All values in Lua are first-class values. This means that all values can be stored in
variables, passed as arguments to other functions, and returned as results.

There are eight basic types in Lua: nil, boolean, number, string, function, userdata,
thread, and table. Nil is the type of the value nil, whose main property is to be
different from any other value; it usually represents the absence of a useful value.
Boolean is the type of the values false and true. Both nil and false make a condition
false; any other value makes it true. Number represents real (double-precision
floating-point) numbers. (It is easy to build Lua interpreters that use other internal
representations for numbers, such as single-precision float or long integers; see file
luaconf.h.) String represents arrays of characters. Lua is 8-bit clean: strings can
contain any 8-bit character, including embedded zeros (' \0') (see §2.1).

Lua can call (and manipulate) functions written in Lua and functions written in C (see
§2.5.8).

The type userdata is provided to allow arbitrary C data to be stored in Lua variables.
This type corresponds to a block of raw memory and has no pre-defined operations
in Lua, except assignment and identity test. However, by using metatables, the
programmer can define operations for userdata values (see §2.8). Userdata values
cannot be created or modified in Lua, only through the C API. This guarantees the
integrity of data owned by the host program.

The type thread represents independent threads of execution and it is used to

implement coroutines (see §2.11). Do not confuse Lua threads with operating-
system threads. Lua supports coroutines on all systems, even those that do not
support threads.

The type table implements associative arrays, that is, arrays that can be indexed not
only with numbers, but with any value (except nil). Tables can be heterogeneous;
that is, they can contain values of all types (except nil). Tables are the sole data
structuring mechanism in Lua; they can be used to represent ordinary arrays, symbol
tables, sets, records, graphs, trees, etc. To represent records, Lua uses the field
name as an index. The language supports this representation by providing a.name as
syntactic sugar for a["name"]. There are several convenient ways to create tables in
Lua (see §2.5.7).

Like indices, the value of a table field can be of any type (except nil). In particular,
because functions are first-class values, table fields can contain functions. Thus
tables can also carry methods (see §2.5.9).

Tables, functions, threads, and (full) userdata values are objects: variables do not
actually contain these values, only references to them. Assignment, parameter
passing, and function returns always manipulate references to such values; these
operations do not imply any kind of copy.

The library function type returns a string describing the type of a given value.

2.2.1 - Coercion

Lua provides automatic conversion between string and number values at run time.
Any arithmetic operation applied to a string tries to convert this string to a number,
following the usual conversion rules. Conversely, whenever a number is used where
a string is expected, the number is converted to a string, in a reasonable format. For
complete control over how numbers are converted to strings, use the format function
from the string library (see string.format).

2.3 - Variables
Variables are places that store values. There are three kinds of variables in Lua:
global variables, local variables, and table fields.

A single name can denote a global variable or a local variable (or a function's formal
parameter, which is a particular kind of local variable):

var ::= Name

Name denotes identifiers, as defined in §2.1.

Any variable is assumed to be global unless explicitly declared as a local (see

§2.4.7). Local variables are lexically scoped: local variables can be freely accessed
by functions defined inside their scope (see §2.6).

Before the first assignment to a variable, its value is nil.

Square brackets are used to index a table:

var ::= prefixexp `[´ exp `]´

The meaning of accesses to global variables and table fields can be changed via
metatables. An access to an indexed variable t[i] is equivalent to a call
gettable_event(t,i). (See §2.8 for a complete description of the gettable_event
function. This function is not defined or callable in Lua. We use it here only for
explanatory purposes.)

The syntax var.Name is just syntactic sugar for var["Name"]:

var ::= prefixexp `.´ Name

All global variables live as fields in ordinary Lua tables, called environment tables or
simply environments (see §2.9). Each function has its own reference to an
environment, so that all global variables in this function will refer to this environment
table. When a function is created, it inherits the environment from the function that
created it. To get the environment table of a Lua function, you call getfenv. To
replace it, you call setfenv. (You can only manipulate the environment of C functions
through the debug library; (see §5.9).)

An access to a global variable x is equivalent to _env.x, which in turn is equivalent to

gettable_event(_env, "x")

where _env is the environment of the running function. (See §2.8 for a complete
description of the gettable_event function. This function is not defined or callable in
Lua. Similarly, the _env variable is not defined in Lua. We use them here only for
explanatory purposes.)

2.4 - Statements
Lua supports an almost conventional set of statements, similar to those in Pascal or
C. This set includes assignments, control structures, function calls, and variable
declarations.

2.4.1 - Chunks

The unit of execution of Lua is called a chunk. A chunk is simply a sequence of

statements, which are executed sequentially. Each statement can be optionally
followed by a semicolon:

chunk ::= {stat [`;´]}

There are no empty statements and thus ';;' is not legal.

Lua handles a chunk as the body of an anonymous function with a variable number
of arguments (see §2.5.9). As such, chunks can define local variables, receive
arguments, and return values.
A chunk can be stored in a file or in a string inside the host program. To execute a
chunk, Lua first pre-compiles the chunk into instructions for a virtual machine, and
then it executes the compiled code with an interpreter for the virtual machine.

Chunks can also be pre-compiled into binary form; see program luac for details.
Programs in source and compiled forms are interchangeable; Lua automatically
detects the file type and acts accordingly.

2.4.2 - Blocks

A block is a list of statements; syntactically, a block is the same as a chunk:

block ::= chunk

A block can be explicitly delimited to produce a single statement:

stat ::= do block end

Explicit blocks are useful to control the scope of variable declarations. Explicit blocks
are also sometimes used to add a return or break statement in the middle of
another block (see §2.4.4).

2.4.3 - Assignment

Lua allows multiple assignments. Therefore, the syntax for assignment defines a list
of variables on the left side and a list of expressions on the right side. The elements
in both lists are separated by commas:

stat ::= varlist `=´ explist

varlist ::= var {`,´ var}
explist ::= exp {`,´ exp}

Expressions are discussed in §2.5.

Before the assignment, the list of values is adjusted to the length of the list of
variables. If there are more values than needed, the excess values are thrown away.
If there are fewer values than needed, the list is extended with as many nil's as
needed. If the list of expressions ends with a function call, then all values returned by
that call enter the list of values, before the adjustment (except when the call is
enclosed in parentheses; see §2.5).

The assignment statement first evaluates all its expressions and only then are the
assignments performed. Thus the code

i = 3
i, a[i] = i+1, 20

sets a[3] to 20, without affecting a[4] because the i in a[i] is evaluated (to 3)
before it is assigned 4. Similarly, the line
 x, y = y, x

exchanges the values of x and y, and

x, y, z = y, z, x

cyclically permutes the values of x, y, and z.

The meaning of assignments to global variables and table fields can be changed via
metatables. An assignment to an indexed variable t[i] = val is equivalent to
settable_event(t,i,val). (See §2.8 for a complete description of the
settable_event function. This function is not defined or callable in Lua. We use it
here only for explanatory purposes.)

An assignment to a global variable x = val is equivalent to the assignment _env.x =

val, which in turn is equivalent to

settable_event(_env, "x", val)

where _env is the environment of the running function. (The _env variable is not
defined in Lua. We use it here only for explanatory purposes.)

2.4.4 - Control Structures

The control structures if, while, and repeat have the usual meaning and familiar
syntax:

stat ::= while exp do block end

stat ::= repeat block until exp
stat ::= if exp then block {elseif exp then block}
[else block] end

Lua also has a for statement, in two flavors (see §2.4.5).

The condition expression of a control structure can return any value. Both false and
nil are considered false. All values different from nil and false are considered true
(in particular, the number 0 and the empty string are also true).

In the repeat–until loop, the inner block does not end at the until keyword, but only
after the condition. So, the condition can refer to local variables declared inside the
loop block.

The return statement is used to return values from a function or a chunk (which is
just a function). Functions and chunks can return more than one value, and so the
syntax for the return statement is

stat ::= return [explist]

The break statement is used to terminate the execution of a while, repeat, or for
loop, skipping to the next statement after the loop:

stat ::= break

A break ends the innermost enclosing loop.

The return and break statements can only be written as the last statement of a
block. If it is really necessary to return or break in the middle of a block, then an
explicit inner block can be used, as in the idioms do return end and do break end,
because now return and break are the last statements in their (inner) blocks.

2.4.5 - For Statement

The for statement has two forms: one numeric and one generic.

The numeric for loop repeats a block of code while a control variable runs through
an arithmetic progression. It has the following syntax:

stat ::= for Name `=´ exp `,´ exp [`,´ exp] do block
end

The block is repeated for name starting at the value of the first exp, until it passes
the second exp by steps of the third exp. More precisely, a for statement like

for v = e1, e2, e3 do block end

is equivalent to the code:

do
local var, limit, step = tonumber(e1), tonumber(e2),
tonumber(e3)
if not (var and limit and step) then error() end
while (step > 0 and var <= limit) or (step <= 0 and
var >= limit) do
local v = var
block
var = var + step
end
end

Note the following:

 All three control expressions are evaluated only once, before the loop
starts. They must all result in numbers.
 var, limit, and step are invisible variables. The names shown here are for
explanatory purposes only.
 If the third expression (the step) is absent, then a step of 1 is used.
 You can use break to exit a for loop.
  The loop variable v is local to the loop; you cannot use its value after the
for ends or is broken. If you need this value, assign it to another variable
before breaking or exiting the loop.

The generic for statement works over functions, called iterators. On each iteration,
the iterator function is called to produce a new value, stopping when this new value
is nil. The generic for loop has the following syntax:

stat ::= for namelist in explist do block end

namelist ::= Name {`,´ Name}

A for statement like

for var_1, ···, var_n in explist do block end

is equivalent to the code:

do
local f, s, var = explist
while true do
local var_1, ···, var_n = f(s, var)
var = var_1
if var == nil then break end
block
end
end

Note the following:

 explist is evaluated only once. Its results are an iterator function, a state,
and an initial value for the first iterator variable.
 f, s, and var are invisible variables. The names are here for explanatory
purposes only.
 You can use break to exit a for loop.
 The loop variables var_i are local to the loop; you cannot use their values
after the for ends. If you need these values, then assign them to other
variables before breaking or exiting the loop.

2.4.6 - Function Calls as Statements

To allow possible side-effects, function calls can be executed as statements:

stat ::= functioncall

In this case, all returned values are thrown away. Function calls are explained in
§2.5.8.

2.4.7 - Local Declarations

Local variables can be declared anywhere inside a block. The declaration can
include an initial assignment:

stat ::= local namelist [`=´ explist]

If present, an initial assignment has the same semantics of a multiple assignment

(see §2.4.3). Otherwise, all variables are initialized with nil.

A chunk is also a block (see §2.4.1), and so local variables can be declared in a
chunk outside any explicit block. The scope of such local variables extends until the
end of the chunk.

The visibility rules for local variables are explained in §2.6.

2.5 - Expressions
The basic expressions in Lua are the following:

exp ::= prefixexp

exp ::= nil | false | true
exp ::= Number
exp ::= String
exp ::= function
exp ::= tableconstructor
exp ::= `...´
exp ::= exp binop exp
exp ::= unop exp
prefixexp ::= var | functioncall | `(´ exp `)´

Numbers and literal strings are explained in §2.1; variables are explained in §2.3;
function definitions are explained in §2.5.9; function calls are explained in §2.5.8;
table constructors are explained in §2.5.7. Vararg expressions, denoted by three
dots ('...'), can only be used when directly inside a vararg function; they are
explained in §2.5.9.

Binary operators comprise arithmetic operators (see §2.5.1), relational operators

(see §2.5.2), logical operators (see §2.5.3), and the concatenation operator (see
§2.5.4). Unary operators comprise the unary minus (see §2.5.1), the unary not (see
§2.5.3), and the unary length operator (see §2.5.5).

Both function calls and vararg expressions can result in multiple values. If an
expression is used as a statement (only possible for function calls (see §2.4.6)), then
its return list is adjusted to zero elements, thus discarding all returned values. If an
expression is used as the last (or the only) element of a list of expressions, then no
adjustment is made (unless the call is enclosed in parentheses). In all other contexts,
Lua adjusts the result list to one element, discarding all values except the first one.

Here are some examples:

 f() -- adjusted to 0 results
g(f(), x) -- f() is adjusted to 1 result
g(x, f()) -- g gets x plus all results from
f()
a,b,c = f(), x -- f() is adjusted to 1 result (c
gets nil)
a,b = ... -- a gets the first vararg
parameter, b gets
-- the second (both a and b can get
nil if there
-- is no corresponding vararg
parameter)

a,b,c = x, f() -- f() is adjusted to 2 results

a,b,c = f() -- f() is adjusted to 3 results
return f() -- returns all results from f()
return ... -- returns all received vararg
parameters
return x,y,f() -- returns x, y, and all results
from f()
{f()} -- creates a list with all results
from f()
{...} -- creates a list with all vararg
parameters
{f(), nil} -- f() is adjusted to 1 result

Any expression enclosed in parentheses always results in only one value. Thus,
(f(x,y,z)) is always a single value, even if f returns several values. (The value of
(f(x,y,z)) is the first value returned by f or nil if f does not return any values.)

2.5.1 - Arithmetic Operators

Lua supports the usual arithmetic operators: the binary + (addition), - (subtraction), *
(multiplication), / (division), % (modulo), and ^ (exponentiation); and unary -
(negation). If the operands are numbers, or strings that can be converted to numbers
(see §2.2.1), then all operations have the usual meaning. Exponentiation works for
any exponent. For instance, x^(-0.5) computes the inverse of the square root of x.
Modulo is defined as

a % b == a - math.floor(a/b)*b

That is, it is the remainder of a division that rounds the quotient towards minus
infinity.

2.5.2 - Relational Operators

The relational operators in Lua are

== ~= < > <= >=

These operators always result in false or true.

Equality (==) first compares the type of its operands. If the types are different, then
the result is false. Otherwise, the values of the operands are compared. Numbers
and strings are compared in the usual way. Objects (tables, userdata, threads, and
functions) are compared by reference: two objects are considered equal only if they
are the same object. Every time you create a new object (a table, userdata, thread,
or function), this new object is different from any previously existing object.

You can change the way that Lua compares tables and userdata by using the "eq"
metamethod (see §2.8).

The conversion rules of §2.2.1 do not apply to equality comparisons. Thus, "0"==0
evaluates to false, and t[0] and t["0"] denote different entries in a table.

The operator ~= is exactly the negation of equality (==).

The order operators work as follows. If both arguments are numbers, then they are
compared as such. Otherwise, if both arguments are strings, then their values are
compared according to the current locale. Otherwise, Lua tries to call the "lt" or the
"le" metamethod (see §2.8). A comparison a > b is translated to b < a and a >= b is
translated to b <= a.

2.5.3 - Logical Operators

The logical operators in Lua are and, or, and not. Like the control structures (see
§2.4.4), all logical operators consider both false and nil as false and anything else
as true.

The negation operator not always returns false or true. The conjunction operator
and returns its first argument if this value is false or nil; otherwise, and returns its
second argument. The disjunction operator or returns its first argument if this value
is different from nil and false; otherwise, or returns its second argument. Both and
and or use short-cut evaluation; that is, the second operand is evaluated only if
necessary. Here are some examples:

10 or 20 --> 10
10 or error() --> 10
nil or "a" --> "a"
nil and 10 --> nil
false and error() --> false
false and nil --> false
false or nil --> nil
10 and 20 --> 20

(In this manual, --> indicates the result of the preceding expression.)

2.5.4 - Concatenation
The string concatenation operator in Lua is denoted by two dots (' ..'). If both
operands are strings or numbers, then they are converted to strings according to the
rules mentioned in §2.2.1. Otherwise, the "concat" metamethod is called (see §2.8).

2.5.5 - The Length Operator

The length operator is denoted by the unary operator #. The length of a string is its
number of bytes (that is, the usual meaning of string length when each character is
one byte).

The length of a table t is defined to be any integer index n such that t[n] is not nil
and t[n+1] is nil; moreover, if t[1] is nil, n can be zero. For a regular array, with
non-nil values from 1 to a given n, its length is exactly that n, the index of its last
value. If the array has "holes" (that is, nil values between other non-nil values), then
#t can be any of the indices that directly precedes a nil value (that is, it may
consider any such nil value as the end of the array).

2.5.6 - Precedence

Operator precedence in Lua follows the table below, from lower to higher priority:

or
and
< > <= >= ~= ==
..
+ -
* / %
not # - (unary)
^

As usual, you can use parentheses to change the precedences of an expression.

The concatenation ('..') and exponentiation ('^') operators are right associative. All
other binary operators are left associative.

2.5.7 - Table Constructors

Table constructors are expressions that create tables. Every time a constructor is
evaluated, a new table is created. A constructor can be used to create an empty
table or to create a table and initialize some of its fields. The general syntax for
constructors is

tableconstructor ::= `{´ [fieldlist] `}´

fieldlist ::= field {fieldsep field} [fieldsep]
field ::= `[´ exp `]´ `=´ exp | Name `=´ exp | exp
fieldsep ::= `,´ | `;´

Each field of the form [exp1] = exp2 adds to the new table an entry with key exp1
and value exp2. A field of the form name = exp is equivalent to ["name"] = exp.
Finally, fields of the form exp are equivalent to [i] = exp, where i are consecutive
numerical integers, starting with 1. Fields in the other formats do not affect this
counting. For example,

a = { [f(1)] = g; "x", "y"; x = 1, f(x), [30] = 23;

45 }

is equivalent to

do
local t = {}
t[f(1)] = g
t[1] = "x" -- 1st exp
t[2] = "y" -- 2nd exp
t.x = 1 -- t["x"] = 1
t[3] = f(x) -- 3rd exp
t[30] = 23
t[4] = 45 -- 4th exp
a = t
end

If the last field in the list has the form exp and the expression is a function call or a
vararg expression, then all values returned by this expression enter the list
consecutively (see §2.5.8). To avoid this, enclose the function call or the vararg
expression in parentheses (see §2.5).

The field list can have an optional trailing separator, as a convenience for machine-
generated code.

2.5.8 - Function Calls

A function call in Lua has the following syntax:

functioncall ::= prefixexp args

In a function call, first prefixexp and args are evaluated. If the value of prefixexp has
type function, then this function is called with the given arguments. Otherwise, the
prefixexp "call" metamethod is called, having as first parameter the value of
prefixexp, followed by the original call arguments (see §2.8).

The form

functioncall ::= prefixexp `:´ Name args

can be used to call "methods". A call v:name(args) is syntactic sugar for

v.name(v,args), except that v is evaluated only once.

Arguments have the following syntax:

args ::= `(´ [explist] `)´

 args ::= tableconstructor
args ::= String

All argument expressions are evaluated before the call. A call of the form f{fields}
is syntactic sugar for f({fields}); that is, the argument list is a single new table. A
call of the form f'string' (or f"string" or f[[string]]) is syntactic sugar for
f('string'); that is, the argument list is a single literal string.

As an exception to the free-format syntax of Lua, you cannot put a line break before
the '(' in a function call. This restriction avoids some ambiguities in the language. If
you write

a = f
(g).x(a)

Lua would see that as a single statement, a = f(g).x(a). So, if you want two
statements, you must add a semi-colon between them. If you actually want to call f,
you must remove the line break before (g).

A call of the form return functioncall is called a tail call. Lua implements proper tail
calls (or proper tail recursion): in a tail call, the called function reuses the stack entry
of the calling function. Therefore, there is no limit on the number of nested tail calls
that a program can execute. However, a tail call erases any debug information about
the calling function. Note that a tail call only happens with a particular syntax, where
the return has one single function call as argument; this syntax makes the calling
function return exactly the returns of the called function. So, none of the following
examples are tail calls:

return (f(x)) -- results adjusted to 1

return 2 * f(x)
return x, f(x) -- additional results
f(x); return -- results discarded
return x or f(x) -- results adjusted to 1

2.5.9 - Function Definitions

The syntax for function definition is

function ::= function funcbody

funcbody ::= `(´ [parlist] `)´ block end

The following syntactic sugar simplifies function definitions:

stat ::= function funcname funcbody

stat ::= local function Name funcbody
funcname ::= Name {`.´ Name} [`:´ Name]

The statement
 function f () body end

translates to

f = function () body end

The statement

function t.a.b.c.f () body end

translates to

t.a.b.c.f = function () body end

The statement

local function f () body end

translates to

local f; f = function () body end

not to

local f = function () body end

(This only makes a difference when the body of the function contains references to
f.)

A function definition is an executable expression, whose value has type function.

When Lua pre-compiles a chunk, all its function bodies are pre-compiled too. Then,
whenever Lua executes the function definition, the function is instantiated (or
closed). This function instance (or closure) is the final value of the expression.
Different instances of the same function can refer to different external local variables
and can have different environment tables.

Parameters act as local variables that are initialized with the argument values:

parlist ::= namelist [`,´ `...´] | `...´

When a function is called, the list of arguments is adjusted to the length of the list of
parameters, unless the function is a variadic or vararg function, which is indicated by
three dots ('...') at the end of its parameter list. A vararg function does not adjust its
argument list; instead, it collects all extra arguments and supplies them to the
function through a vararg expression, which is also written as three dots. The value
of this expression is a list of all actual extra arguments, similar to a function with
multiple results. If a vararg expression is used inside another expression or in the
middle of a list of expressions, then its return list is adjusted to one element. If the
expression is used as the last element of a list of expressions, then no adjustment is
made (unless that last expression is enclosed in parentheses).
As an example, consider the following definitions:

function f(a, b) end

function g(a, b, ...) end
function r() return 1,2,3 end

Then, we have the following mapping from arguments to parameters and to the
vararg expression:

CALL PARAMETERS

f(3) a=3, b=nil

f(3, 4) a=3, b=4
f(3, 4, 5) a=3, b=4
f(r(), 10) a=1, b=10
f(r()) a=1, b=2

g(3) a=3, b=nil, ... --> (nothing)

g(3, 4) a=3, b=4, ... --> (nothing)
g(3, 4, 5, 8) a=3, b=4, ... --> 5 8
g(5, r()) a=5, b=1, ... --> 2 3

Results are returned using the return statement (see §2.4.4). If control reaches the
end of a function without encountering a return statement, then the function returns
with no results.

The colon syntax is used for defining methods, that is, functions that have an implicit
extra parameter self. Thus, the statement

function t.a.b.c:f (params) body end

is syntactic sugar for

t.a.b.c.f = function (self, params) body end

2.6 - Visibility Rules

Lua is a lexically scoped language. The scope of variables begins at the first
statement after their declaration and lasts until the end of the innermost block that
includes the declaration. Consider the following example:

x = 10 -- global variable
do -- new block
local x = x -- new 'x', with value 10
print(x) --> 10
x = x+1
do -- another block
local x = x+1 -- another 'x'
print(x) --> 12
 end
print(x) --> 11
end
print(x) --> 10 (the global one)

Notice that, in a declaration like local x = x, the new x being declared is not in
scope yet, and so the second x refers to the outside variable.

Because of the lexical scoping rules, local variables can be freely accessed by
functions defined inside their scope. A local variable used by an inner function is
called an upvalue, or external local variable, inside the inner function.

Notice that each execution of a local statement defines new local variables.
Consider the following example:

a = {}
local x = 20
for i=1,10 do
local y = 0
a[i] = function () y=y+1; return x+y end
end

The loop creates ten closures (that is, ten instances of the anonymous function).
Each of these closures uses a different y variable, while all of them share the same
x.

2.7 - Error Handling

Because Lua is an embedded extension language, all Lua actions start from C code
in the host program calling a function from the Lua library (see lua_pcall).
Whenever an error occurs during Lua compilation or execution, control returns to C,
which can take appropriate measures (such as printing an error message).

Lua code can explicitly generate an error by calling the error function. If you need to
catch errors in Lua, you can use the pcall function.

2.8 - Metatables
Every value in Lua can have a metatable. This metatable is an ordinary Lua table
that defines the behavior of the original value under certain special operations. You
can change several aspects of the behavior of operations over a value by setting
specific fields in its metatable. For instance, when a non-numeric value is the
operand of an addition, Lua checks for a function in the field "__add" in its metatable.
If it finds one, Lua calls this function to perform the addition.

We call the keys in a metatable events and the values metamethods. In the previous
example, the event is "add" and the metamethod is the function that performs the
addition.
You can query the metatable of any value through the getmetatable function.

You can replace the metatable of tables through the setmetatable function. You
cannot change the metatable of other types from Lua (except by using the debug
library); you must use the C API for that.

Tables and full userdata have individual metatables (although multiple tables and
userdata can share their metatables). Values of all other types share one single
metatable per type; that is, there is one single metatable for all numbers, one for all
strings, etc.

A metatable controls how an object behaves in arithmetic operations, order

comparisons, concatenation, length operation, and indexing. A metatable also can
define a function to be called when a userdata is garbage collected. For each of
these operations Lua associates a specific key called an event. When Lua performs
one of these operations over a value, it checks whether this value has a metatable
with the corresponding event. If so, the value associated with that key (the
metamethod) controls how Lua will perform the operation.

Metatables control the operations listed next. Each operation is identified by its
corresponding name. The key for each operation is a string with its name prefixed by
two underscores, '__'; for instance, the key for operation "add" is the string "__add".
The semantics of these operations is better explained by a Lua function describing
how the interpreter executes the operation.

The code shown here in Lua is only illustrative; the real behavior is hard coded in the
interpreter and it is much more efficient than this simulation. All functions used in
these descriptions (rawget, tonumber, etc.) are described in §5.1. In particular, to
retrieve the metamethod of a given object, we use the expression

metatable(obj)[event]

This should be read as

rawget(getmetatable(obj) or {}, event)

That is, the access to a metamethod does not invoke other metamethods, and the
access to objects with no metatables does not fail (it simply results in nil).

 "add": the + operation.

The function getbinhandler below defines how Lua chooses a handler for
a binary operation. First, Lua tries the first operand. If its type does not
define a handler for the operation, then Lua tries the second operand.

function getbinhandler (op1, op2, event)

return metatable(op1)[event] or metatable(op2)
[event]
end
 By using this function, the behavior of the op1 + op2 is

function add_event (op1, op2)

local o1, o2 = tonumber(op1), tonumber(op2)
if o1 and o2 then -- both operands are
numeric?
return o1 + o2 -- '+' here is the
primitive 'add'
else -- at least one of the operands is not
numeric
local h = getbinhandler(op1, op2, "__add")
if h then
-- call the handler with both operands
return (h(op1, op2))
else -- no handler available: default
behavior
error(···)
end
end
end

 "sub": the - operation. Behavior similar to the "add" operation.

 "mul": the * operation. Behavior similar to the "add" operation.
 "div": the / operation. Behavior similar to the "add" operation.
 "mod": the % operation. Behavior similar to the "add" operation, with the
operation o1 - floor(o1/o2)*o2 as the primitive operation.
 "pow": the ^ (exponentiation) operation. Behavior similar to the "add"
operation, with the function pow (from the C math library) as the primitive
operation.
 "unm": the unary - operation.
 function unm_event (op)
 local o = tonumber(op)
 if o then -- operand is numeric?
 return -o -- '-' here is the primitive 'unm'
 else -- the operand is not numeric.
 -- Try to get a handler from the operand
 local h = metatable(op).__unm
 if h then
 -- call the handler with the operand
 return (h(op))
 else -- no handler available: default
behavior
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end
 "concat": the .. (concatenation) operation.
 function concat_event (op1, op2)
 if (type(op1) == "string" or type(op1) ==
"number") and
 (type(op2) == "string" or type(op2) ==
"number") then
 return op1 .. op2 -- primitive string
concatenation
 else
 local h = getbinhandler(op1, op2, "__concat")
 if h then
 return (h(op1, op2))
 else
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end
 "len": the # operation.
 function len_event (op)
 if type(op) == "string" then
 return strlen(op) -- primitive string
length
 elseif type(op) == "table" then
 return #op -- primitive table
length
 else
 local h = metatable(op).__len
 if h then
 -- call the handler with the operand
 return (h(op))
 else -- no handler available: default
behavior
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end

See §2.5.5 for a description of the length of a table.

 "eq": the == operation. The function getcomphandler defines how Lua

chooses a metamethod for comparison operators. A metamethod only is
selected when both objects being compared have the same type and the
same metamethod for the selected operation.
 function getcomphandler (op1, op2, event)
 if type(op1) ~= type(op2) then return nil end
 local mm1 = metatable(op1)[event]
 local mm2 = metatable(op2)[event]
 if mm1 == mm2 then return mm1 else return nil
end
 end

The "eq" event is defined as follows:

function eq_event (op1, op2)

if type(op1) ~= type(op2) then -- different
types?
return false -- different objects
end
if op1 == op2 then -- primitive equal?
return true -- objects are equal
end
-- try metamethod
local h = getcomphandler(op1, op2, "__eq")
if h then
return (h(op1, op2))
else
return false
end
end

a ~= b is equivalent to not (a == b).

 "lt": the < operation.

 function lt_event (op1, op2)
 if type(op1) == "number" and type(op2) ==
"number" then
 return op1 < op2 -- numeric comparison
 elseif type(op1) == "string" and type(op2) ==
"string" then
 return op1 < op2 -- lexicographic
comparison
 else
 local h = getcomphandler(op1, op2, "__lt")
 if h then
 return (h(op1, op2))
 else
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end
 a > b is equivalent to b < a.

 "le": the <= operation.

 function le_event (op1, op2)
 if type(op1) == "number" and type(op2) ==
"number" then
 return op1 <= op2 -- numeric comparison
 elseif type(op1) == "string" and type(op2) ==
"string" then
 return op1 <= op2 -- lexicographic
comparison
 else
 local h = getcomphandler(op1, op2, "__le")
 if h then
 return (h(op1, op2))
 else
 h = getcomphandler(op1, op2, "__lt")
 if h then
 return not h(op2, op1)
 else
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end
 end

a >= b is equivalent to b <= a. Note that, in the absence of a "le"

metamethod, Lua tries the "lt", assuming that a <= b is equivalent to not
(b < a).

 "index": The indexing access table[key].

 function gettable_event (table, key)
 local h
 if type(table) == "table" then
 local v = rawget(table, key)
 if v ~= nil then return v end
 h = metatable(table).__index
 if h == nil then return nil end
 else
 h = metatable(table).__index
 if h == nil then
 error(···)
 end
 end
 if type(h) == "function" then
 return (h(table, key)) -- call the
handler
 else return h[key] -- or repeat
operation on it
 end
 end
 "newindex": The indexing assignment table[key] = value.
 function settable_event (table, key, value)
 local h
 if type(table) == "table" then
 local v = rawget(table, key)
 if v ~= nil then rawset(table, key, value);
return end
 h = metatable(table).__newindex
 if h == nil then rawset(table, key, value);
return end
 else
 h = metatable(table).__newindex
 if h == nil then
 error(···)
 end
 end
 if type(h) == "function" then
 h(table, key,value) -- call the
handler
 else h[key] = value -- or repeat
operation on it
 end
 end
 "call": called when Lua calls a value.
 function function_event (func, ...)
 if type(func) == "function" then
 return func(...) -- primitive call
 else
 local h = metatable(func).__call
 if h then
 return h(func, ...)
 else
 error(···)
 end
 end
 end
2.9 - Environments
Besides metatables, objects of types thread, function, and userdata have another
table associated with them, called their environment. Like metatables, environments
are regular tables and multiple objects can share the same environment.

Threads are created sharing the environment of the creating thread. Userdata and
C functions are created sharing the environment of the creating C function. Non-
nested Lua functions (created by loadfile, loadstring or load) are created sharing
the environment of the creating thread. Nested Lua functions are created sharing the
environment of the creating Lua function.

Environments associated with userdata have no meaning for Lua. It is only a

convenience feature for programmers to associate a table to a userdata.

Environments associated with threads are called global environments. They are
used as the default environment for threads and non-nested Lua functions created
by the thread and can be directly accessed by C code (see §3.3).

The environment associated with a C function can be directly accessed by C code

(see §3.3). It is used as the default environment for other C functions and userdata
created by the function.

Environments associated with Lua functions are used to resolve all accesses to
global variables within the function (see §2.3). They are used as the default
environment for nested Lua functions created by the function.

You can change the environment of a Lua function or the running thread by calling
setfenv. You can get the environment of a Lua function or the running thread by
calling getfenv. To manipulate the environment of other objects (userdata,
C functions, other threads) you must use the C API.

2.10 - Garbage Collection

Lua performs automatic memory management. This means that you have to worry
neither about allocating memory for new objects nor about freeing it when the
objects are no longer needed. Lua manages memory automatically by running a
garbage collector from time to time to collect all dead objects (that is, objects that are
no longer accessible from Lua). All memory used by Lua is subject to automatic
management: tables, userdata, functions, threads, strings, etc.

Lua implements an incremental mark-and-sweep collector. It uses two numbers to

control its garbage-collection cycles: the garbage-collector pause and the garbage-
collector step multiplier. Both use percentage points as units (so that a value of 100
means an internal value of 1).

The garbage-collector pause controls how long the collector waits before starting a
new cycle. Larger values make the collector less aggressive. Values smaller than
100 mean the collector will not wait to start a new cycle. A value of 200 means that
the collector waits for the total memory in use to double before starting a new cycle.

The step multiplier controls the relative speed of the collector relative to memory
allocation. Larger values make the collector more aggressive but also increase the
size of each incremental step. Values smaller than 100 make the collector too slow
and can result in the collector never finishing a cycle. The default, 200, means that
the collector runs at "twice" the speed of memory allocation.

You can change these numbers by calling lua_gc in C or collectgarbage in Lua.

With these functions you can also control the collector directly (e.g., stop and restart
it).

2.10.1 - Garbage-Collection Metamethods

Using the C API, you can set garbage-collector metamethods for userdata (see
§2.8). These metamethods are also called finalizers. Finalizers allow you to
coordinate Lua's garbage collection with external resource management (such as
closing files, network or database connections, or freeing your own memory).

Garbage userdata with a field __gc in their metatables are not collected immediately
by the garbage collector. Instead, Lua puts them in a list. After the collection, Lua
does the equivalent of the following function for each userdata in that list:

function gc_event (udata)

local h = metatable(udata).__gc
if h then
h(udata)
end
end

At the end of each garbage-collection cycle, the finalizers for userdata are called in
reverse order of their creation, among those collected in that cycle. That is, the first
finalizer to be called is the one associated with the userdata created last in the
program. The userdata itself is freed only in the next garbage-collection cycle.

2.10.2 - Weak Tables

A weak table is a table whose elements are weak references. A weak reference is
ignored by the garbage collector. In other words, if the only references to an object
are weak references, then the garbage collector will collect this object.

A weak table can have weak keys, weak values, or both. A table with weak keys
allows the collection of its keys, but prevents the collection of its values. A table with
both weak keys and weak values allows the collection of both keys and values. In
any case, if either the key or the value is collected, the whole pair is removed from
the table. The weakness of a table is controlled by the __mode field of its metatable. If
the __mode field is a string containing the character 'k', the keys in the table are weak.
If __mode contains 'v', the values in the table are weak.
After you use a table as a metatable, you should not change the value of its __mode
field. Otherwise, the weak behavior of the tables controlled by this metatable is
undefined.

2.11 - Coroutines
Lua supports coroutines, also called collaborative multithreading. A coroutine in Lua
represents an independent thread of execution. Unlike threads in multithread
systems, however, a coroutine only suspends its execution by explicitly calling a
yield function.

You create a coroutine with a call to coroutine.create. Its sole argument is a

function that is the main function of the coroutine. The create function only creates a
new coroutine and returns a handle to it (an object of type thread); it does not start
the coroutine execution.

When you first call coroutine.resume, passing as its first argument a thread returned
by coroutine.create, the coroutine starts its execution, at the first line of its main
function. Extra arguments passed to coroutine.resume are passed on to the
coroutine main function. After the coroutine starts running, it runs until it terminates
or yields.

A coroutine can terminate its execution in two ways: normally, when its main function
returns (explicitly or implicitly, after the last instruction); and abnormally, if there is an
unprotected error. In the first case, coroutine.resume returns true, plus any values
returned by the coroutine main function. In case of errors, coroutine.resume returns
false plus an error message.

A coroutine yields by calling coroutine.yield. When a coroutine yields, the

corresponding coroutine.resume returns immediately, even if the yield happens
inside nested function calls (that is, not in the main function, but in a function directly
or indirectly called by the main function). In the case of a yield, coroutine.resume
also returns true, plus any values passed to coroutine.yield. The next time you
resume the same coroutine, it continues its execution from the point where it yielded,
with the call to coroutine.yield returning any extra arguments passed to
coroutine.resume.

Like coroutine.create, the coroutine.wrap function also creates a coroutine, but

instead of returning the coroutine itself, it returns a function that, when called,
resumes the coroutine. Any arguments passed to this function go as extra
arguments to coroutine.resume. coroutine.wrap returns all the values returned by
coroutine.resume, except the first one (the boolean error code). Unlike
coroutine.resume, coroutine.wrap does not catch errors; any error is propagated to
the caller.

As an example, consider the following code:

function foo (a)

print("foo", a)
 return coroutine.yield(2*a)
end

co = coroutine.create(function (a,b)
print("co-body", a, b)
local r = foo(a+1)
print("co-body", r)
local r, s = coroutine.yield(a+b, a-b)
print("co-body", r, s)
return b, "end"
end)

print("main", coroutine.resume(co, 1, 10))

print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "r"))
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "x", "y"))
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "x", "y"))

When you run it, it produces the following output:

co-body 1 10
foo 2

main true 4
co-body r
main true 11 -9
co-body x y
main true 10 end
main false cannot resume dead coroutine

3 - The Application Program Interface

This section describes the C API for Lua, that is, the set of C functions available to
the host program to communicate with Lua. All API functions and related types and
constants are declared in the header file lua.h.

Even when we use the term "function", any facility in the API may be provided as a
macro instead. All such macros use each of their arguments exactly once (except for
the first argument, which is always a Lua state), and so do not generate any hidden
side-effects.

As in most C libraries, the Lua API functions do not check their arguments for validity
or consistency. However, you can change this behavior by compiling Lua with a
proper definition for the macro luai_apicheck, in file luaconf.h.

3.1 - The Stack

Lua uses a virtual stack to pass values to and from C. Each element in this stack
represents a Lua value (nil, number, string, etc.).
Whenever Lua calls C, the called function gets a new stack, which is independent of
previous stacks and of stacks of C functions that are still active. This stack initially
contains any arguments to the C function and it is where the C function pushes its
results to be returned to the caller (see lua_CFunction).

For convenience, most query operations in the API do not follow a strict stack
discipline. Instead, they can refer to any element in the stack by using an index: A
positive index represents an absolute stack position (starting at 1); a negative index
represents an offset relative to the top of the stack. More specifically, if the stack has
n elements, then index 1 represents the first element (that is, the element that was
pushed onto the stack first) and index n represents the last element; index -1 also
represents the last element (that is, the element at the top) and index -n represents
the first element. We say that an index is valid if it lies between 1 and the stack top
(that is, if 1 ≤ abs(index) ≤ top).

3.2 - Stack Size

When you interact with Lua API, you are responsible for ensuring consistency. In
particular, you are responsible for controlling stack overflow. You can use the
function lua_checkstack to grow the stack size.

Whenever Lua calls C, it ensures that at least LUA_MINSTACK stack positions are
available. LUA_MINSTACK is defined as 20, so that usually you do not have to worry
about stack space unless your code has loops pushing elements onto the stack.

Most query functions accept as indices any value inside the available stack space,
that is, indices up to the maximum stack size you have set through lua_checkstack.
Such indices are called acceptable indices. More formally, we define an acceptable
index as follows:

(index < 0 && abs(index) <= top) ||

(index > 0 && index <= stackspace)

Note that 0 is never an acceptable index.

3.3 - Pseudo-Indices
Unless otherwise noted, any function that accepts valid indices can also be called
with pseudo-indices, which represent some Lua values that are accessible to C code
but which are not in the stack. Pseudo-indices are used to access the thread
environment, the function environment, the registry, and the upvalues of a C function
(see §3.4).

The thread environment (where global variables live) is always at pseudo-index

LUA_GLOBALSINDEX. The environment of the running C function is always at pseudo-
index LUA_ENVIRONINDEX.
To access and change the value of global variables, you can use regular table
operations over an environment table. For instance, to access the value of a global
variable, do

lua_getfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, varname);

3.4 - C Closures
When a C function is created, it is possible to associate some values with it, thus
creating a C closure; these values are called upvalues and are accessible to the
function whenever it is called (see lua_pushcclosure).

Whenever a C function is called, its upvalues are located at specific pseudo-indices.

These pseudo-indices are produced by the macro lua_upvalueindex. The first value
associated with a function is at position lua_upvalueindex(1), and so on. Any
access to lua_upvalueindex(n), where n is greater than the number of upvalues of
the current function (but not greater than 256), produces an acceptable (but invalid)
index.

3.5 - Registry
Lua provides a registry, a pre-defined table that can be used by any C code to store
whatever Lua value it needs to store. This table is always located at pseudo-index
LUA_REGISTRYINDEX. Any C library can store data into this table, but it should take
care to choose keys different from those used by other libraries, to avoid collisions.
Typically, you should use as key a string containing your library name or a light
userdata with the address of a C object in your code.

The integer keys in the registry are used by the reference mechanism, implemented
by the auxiliary library, and therefore should not be used for other purposes.

3.6 - Error Handling in C

Internally, Lua uses the C longjmp facility to handle errors. (You can also choose to
use exceptions if you use C++; see file luaconf.h.) When Lua faces any error (such
as memory allocation errors, type errors, syntax errors, and runtime errors) it raises
an error; that is, it does a long jump. A protected environment uses setjmp to set a
recover point; any error jumps to the most recent active recover point.

Most functions in the API can throw an error, for instance due to a memory allocation
error. The documentation for each function indicates whether it can throw errors.

Inside a C function you can throw an error by calling lua_error.

3.7 - Functions and Types

Here we list all functions and types from the C API in alphabetical order. Each
function has an indicator like this: [-o, +p, x]
The first field, o, is how many elements the function pops from the stack. The second
field, p, is how many elements the function pushes onto the stack. (Any function
always pushes its results after popping its arguments.) A field in the form x|y means
the function can push (or pop) x or y elements, depending on the situation; an
interrogation mark '?' means that we cannot know how many elements the function
pops/pushes by looking only at its arguments (e.g., they may depend on what is on
the stack). The third field, x, tells whether the function may throw errors: ' -' means
the function never throws any error; ' m' means the function may throw an error only
due to not enough memory; ' e' means the function may throw other kinds of errors;
'v' means the function may throw an error on purpose.

lua_Alloc

typedef void * (*lua_Alloc) (void *ud,

void *ptr,
size_t osize,
size_t nsize);

The type of the memory-allocation function used by Lua states. The allocator
function must provide a functionality similar to realloc, but not exactly the same. Its
arguments are ud, an opaque pointer passed to lua_newstate; ptr, a pointer to the
block being allocated/reallocated/freed; osize, the original size of the block; nsize,
the new size of the block. ptr is NULL if and only if osize is zero. When nsize is zero,
the allocator must return NULL; if osize is not zero, it should free the block pointed to
by ptr. When nsize is not zero, the allocator returns NULL if and only if it cannot fill
the request. When nsize is not zero and osize is zero, the allocator should behave
like malloc. When nsize and osize are not zero, the allocator behaves like realloc.
Lua assumes that the allocator never fails when osize >= nsize.

Here is a simple implementation for the allocator function. It is used in the auxiliary
library by luaL_newstate.

static void *l_alloc (void *ud, void *ptr, size_t

osize,
size_t
nsize) {
(void)ud; (void)osize; /* not used */
if (nsize == 0) {
free(ptr);
return NULL;
}
else
return realloc(ptr, nsize);
}

This code assumes that free(NULL) has no effect and that realloc(NULL, size) is
equivalent to malloc(size). ANSI C ensures both behaviors.
lua_atpanic

[-0, +0, -]

lua_CFunction lua_atpanic (lua_State *L, lua_CFunction

panicf);

Sets a new panic function and returns the old one.

If an error happens outside any protected environment, Lua calls a panic function
and then calls exit(EXIT_FAILURE), thus exiting the host application. Your panic
function can avoid this exit by never returning (e.g., doing a long jump).

The panic function can access the error message at the top of the stack.

lua_call

[-(nargs + 1), +nresults, e]

void lua_call (lua_State *L, int nargs, int nresults);

Calls a function.

To call a function you must use the following protocol: first, the function to be called
is pushed onto the stack; then, the arguments to the function are pushed in direct
order; that is, the first argument is pushed first. Finally you call lua_call; nargs is the
number of arguments that you pushed onto the stack. All arguments and the function
value are popped from the stack when the function is called. The function results are
pushed onto the stack when the function returns. The number of results is adjusted
to nresults, unless nresults is LUA_MULTRET. In this case, all results from the
function are pushed. Lua takes care that the returned values fit into the stack space.
The function results are pushed onto the stack in direct order (the first result is
pushed first), so that after the call the last result is on the top of the stack.

Any error inside the called function is propagated upwards (with a longjmp).

The following example shows how the host program can do the equivalent to this
Lua code:

a = f("how", t.x, 14)

Here it is in C:

lua_getfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, "f"); /* function to

be called */
 lua_pushstring(L, "how"); /* 1st
argument */
lua_getfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, "t"); /* table to
be indexed */
lua_getfield(L, -1, "x"); /* push result of t.x
(2nd arg) */
lua_remove(L, -2); /* remove 't' from
the stack */
lua_pushinteger(L, 14); /* 3rd
argument */
lua_call(L, 3, 1); /* call 'f' with 3 arguments and
1 result */
lua_setfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, "a"); /* set
global 'a' */

Note that the code above is "balanced": at its end, the stack is back to its original
configuration. This is considered good programming practice.

lua_CFunction

typedef int (*lua_CFunction) (lua_State *L);

Type for C functions.

In order to communicate properly with Lua, a C function must use the following
protocol, which defines the way parameters and results are passed: a C function
receives its arguments from Lua in its stack in direct order (the first argument is
pushed first). So, when the function starts, lua_gettop(L) returns the number of
arguments received by the function. The first argument (if any) is at index 1 and its
last argument is at index lua_gettop(L). To return values to Lua, a C function just
pushes them onto the stack, in direct order (the first result is pushed first), and
returns the number of results. Any other value in the stack below the results will be
properly discarded by Lua. Like a Lua function, a C function called by Lua can also
return many results.

As an example, the following function receives a variable number of numerical

arguments and returns their average and sum:

static int foo (lua_State *L) {

int n = lua_gettop(L); /* number of arguments */
lua_Number sum = 0;
int i;
for (i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
if (!lua_isnumber(L, i)) {
lua_pushstring(L, "incorrect argument");
lua_error(L);
}
 sum += lua_tonumber(L, i);
}
lua_pushnumber(L, sum/n); /* first result */
lua_pushnumber(L, sum); /* second result */
return 2; /* number of results */
}

lua_checkstack

[-0, +0, m]

int lua_checkstack (lua_State *L, int extra);

Ensures that there are at least extra free stack slots in the stack. It returns false if it
cannot grow the stack to that size. This function never shrinks the stack; if the stack
is already larger than the new size, it is left unchanged.

lua_close

[-0, +0, -]

void lua_close (lua_State *L);

Destroys all objects in the given Lua state (calling the corresponding garbage-
collection metamethods, if any) and frees all dynamic memory used by this state. On
several platforms, you may not need to call this function, because all resources are
naturally released when the host program ends. On the other hand, long-running
programs, such as a daemon or a web server, might need to release states as soon
as they are not needed, to avoid growing too large.

lua_concat

[-n, +1, e]

void lua_concat (lua_State *L, int n);

Concatenates the n values at the top of the stack, pops them, and leaves the result
at the top. If n is 1, the result is the single value on the stack (that is, the function
does nothing); if n is 0, the result is the empty string. Concatenation is performed
following the usual semantics of Lua (see §2.5.4).

lua_cpcall
[-0, +(0|1), -]

int lua_cpcall (lua_State *L, lua_CFunction func, void *ud);

Calls the C function func in protected mode. func starts with only one element in its
stack, a light userdata containing ud. In case of errors, lua_cpcall returns the same
error codes as lua_pcall, plus the error object on the top of the stack; otherwise, it
returns zero, and does not change the stack. All values returned by func are
discarded.

lua_createtable

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_createtable (lua_State *L, int narr, int nrec);

Creates a new empty table and pushes it onto the stack. The new table has space
pre-allocated for narr array elements and nrec non-array elements. This pre-
allocation is useful when you know exactly how many elements the table will have.
Otherwise you can use the function lua_newtable.

lua_dump

[-0, +0, m]

int lua_dump (lua_State *L, lua_Writer writer, void *data);

Dumps a function as a binary chunk. Receives a Lua function on the top of the stack
and produces a binary chunk that, if loaded again, results in a function equivalent to
the one dumped. As it produces parts of the chunk, lua_dump calls function writer
(see lua_Writer) with the given data to write them.

The value returned is the error code returned by the last call to the writer; 0 means
no errors.

This function does not pop the Lua function from the stack.

lua_equal

[-0, +0, e]

int lua_equal (lua_State *L, int index1, int index2);

Returns 1 if the two values in acceptable indices index1 and index2 are equal,
following the semantics of the Lua == operator (that is, may call metamethods).
Otherwise returns 0. Also returns 0 if any of the indices is non valid.

lua_error

[-1, +0, v]

int lua_error (lua_State *L);

Generates a Lua error. The error message (which can actually be a Lua value of any
type) must be on the stack top. This function does a long jump, and therefore never
returns. (see luaL_error).

lua_gc

[-0, +0, e]

int lua_gc (lua_State *L, int what, int data);

Controls the garbage collector.

This function performs several tasks, according to the value of the parameter what:

 LUA_GCSTOP: stops the garbage collector.

 LUA_GCRESTART: restarts the garbage collector.
 LUA_GCCOLLECT: performs a full garbage-collection cycle.
 LUA_GCCOUNT: returns the current amount of memory (in Kbytes) in use by
Lua.
 LUA_GCCOUNTB: returns the remainder of dividing the current amount of
bytes of memory in use by Lua by 1024.
 LUA_GCSTEP: performs an incremental step of garbage collection. The step
"size" is controlled by data (larger values mean more steps) in a non-
specified way. If you want to control the step size you must experimentally
tune the value of data. The function returns 1 if the step finished a
garbage-collection cycle.
 LUA_GCSETPAUSE: sets data as the new value for the pause of the collector
(see §2.10). The function returns the previous value of the pause.
 LUA_GCSETSTEPMUL: sets data as the new value for the step multiplier of the
collector (see §2.10). The function returns the previous value of the step
multiplier.

lua_getallocf
[-0, +0, -]

lua_Alloc lua_getallocf (lua_State *L, void **ud);

Returns the memory-allocation function of a given state. If ud is not NULL, Lua stores
in *ud the opaque pointer passed to lua_newstate.

lua_getfenv

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_getfenv (lua_State *L, int index);

Pushes onto the stack the environment table of the value at the given index.

lua_getfield

[-0, +1, e]

void lua_getfield (lua_State *L, int index, const char *k);

Pushes onto the stack the value t[k], where t is the value at the given valid index.
As in Lua, this function may trigger a metamethod for the "index" event (see §2.8).

lua_getglobal

[-0, +1, e]

void lua_getglobal (lua_State *L, const char *name);

Pushes onto the stack the value of the global name. It is defined as a macro:

#define lua_getglobal(L,s) lua_getfield(L,

LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, s)

lua_getmetatable

[-0, +(0|1), -]

int lua_getmetatable (lua_State *L, int index);

Pushes onto the stack the metatable of the value at the given acceptable index. If
the index is not valid, or if the value does not have a metatable, the function
returns 0 and pushes nothing on the stack.

lua_gettable

[-1, +1, e]

void lua_gettable (lua_State *L, int index);

Pushes onto the stack the value t[k], where t is the value at the given valid index
and k is the value at the top of the stack.

This function pops the key from the stack (putting the resulting value in its place). As
in Lua, this function may trigger a metamethod for the "index" event (see §2.8).

lua_gettop

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_gettop (lua_State *L);

Returns the index of the top element in the stack. Because indices start at  1, this
result is equal to the number of elements in the stack (and so 0 means an empty
stack).

lua_insert

[-1, +1, -]

void lua_insert (lua_State *L, int index);

Moves the top element into the given valid index, shifting up the elements above this
index to open space. Cannot be called with a pseudo-index, because a pseudo-
index is not an actual stack position.

lua_Integer

typedef ptrdiff_t lua_Integer;

The type used by the Lua API to represent integral values.

By default it is a ptrdiff_t, which is usually the largest signed integral type the
machine handles "comfortably".

lua_isboolean

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isboolean (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index has type boolean, and
0 otherwise.

lua_iscfunction

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_iscfunction (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a C function, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isfunction

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isfunction (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a function (either C or Lua),
and 0 otherwise.

lua_islightuserdata

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_islightuserdata (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a light userdata, and
0 otherwise.

lua_isnil

[-0, +0, -]
int lua_isnil (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is nil, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isnone

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isnone (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the given acceptable index is not valid (that is, it refers to an element
outside the current stack), and 0 otherwise.

lua_isnoneornil

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isnoneornil (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the given acceptable index is not valid (that is, it refers to an element
outside the current stack) or if the value at this index is nil, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isnumber

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isnumber (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a number or a string

convertible to a number, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isstring

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isstring (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a string or a number (which is
always convertible to a string), and 0 otherwise.

lua_istable
[-0, +0, -]

int lua_istable (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a table, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isthread

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isthread (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a thread, and 0 otherwise.

lua_isuserdata

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_isuserdata (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns 1 if the value at the given acceptable index is a userdata (either full or light),
and 0 otherwise.

lua_lessthan

[-0, +0, e]

int lua_lessthan (lua_State *L, int index1, int index2);

Returns 1 if the value at acceptable index index1 is smaller than the value at
acceptable index index2, following the semantics of the Lua < operator (that is, may
call metamethods). Otherwise returns 0. Also returns 0 if any of the indices is non
valid.

lua_load

[-0, +1, -]

int lua_load (lua_State *L,

lua_Reader reader,
void *data,
const char *chunkname);
Loads a Lua chunk. If there are no errors, lua_load pushes the compiled chunk as a
Lua function on top of the stack. Otherwise, it pushes an error message. The return
values of lua_load are:

 0: no errors;
 LUA_ERRSYNTAX: syntax error during pre-compilation;
 LUA_ERRMEM: memory allocation error.

This function only loads a chunk; it does not run it.

lua_load automatically detects whether the chunk is text or binary, and loads it
accordingly (see program luac).

The lua_load function uses a user-supplied reader function to read the chunk (see
lua_Reader). The data argument is an opaque value passed to the reader function.

The chunkname argument gives a name to the chunk, which is used for error
messages and in debug information (see §3.8).

lua_newstate

[-0, +0, -]

lua_State *lua_newstate (lua_Alloc f, void *ud);

Creates a new, independent state. Returns NULL if cannot create the state (due to
lack of memory). The argument f is the allocator function; Lua does all memory
allocation for this state through this function. The second argument, ud, is an opaque
pointer that Lua simply passes to the allocator in every call.

lua_newtable

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_newtable (lua_State *L);

Creates a new empty table and pushes it onto the stack. It is equivalent to
lua_createtable(L, 0, 0).

lua_newthread

[-0, +1, m]

lua_State *lua_newthread (lua_State *L);

Creates a new thread, pushes it on the stack, and returns a pointer to a lua_State
that represents this new thread. The new state returned by this function shares with
the original state all global objects (such as tables), but has an independent
execution stack.

There is no explicit function to close or to destroy a thread. Threads are subject to

garbage collection, like any Lua object.

lua_newuserdata

[-0, +1, m]

void *lua_newuserdata (lua_State *L, size_t size);

This function allocates a new block of memory with the given size, pushes onto the
stack a new full userdata with the block address, and returns this address.

Userdata represent C values in Lua. A full userdata represents a block of memory. It

is an object (like a table): you must create it, it can have its own metatable, and you
can detect when it is being collected. A full userdata is only equal to itself (under raw
equality).

When Lua collects a full userdata with a gc metamethod, Lua calls the metamethod
and marks the userdata as finalized. When this userdata is collected again then Lua
frees its corresponding memory.

lua_next

[-1, +(2|0), e]

int lua_next (lua_State *L, int index);

Pops a key from the stack, and pushes a key-value pair from the table at the given
index (the "next" pair after the given key). If there are no more elements in the table,
then lua_next returns 0 (and pushes nothing).

A typical traversal looks like this:

/* table is in the stack at index 't' */

lua_pushnil(L); /* first key */
while (lua_next(L, t) != 0) {
/* uses 'key' (at index -2) and 'value' (at index -1)
*/
printf("%s - %s\n",
lua_typename(L, lua_type(L, -2)),
lua_typename(L, lua_type(L, -1)));
 /* removes 'value'; keeps 'key' for next iteration */
lua_pop(L, 1);
}

While traversing a table, do not call lua_tolstring directly on a key, unless you
know that the key is actually a string. Recall that lua_tolstring changes the value at
the given index; this confuses the next call to lua_next.

lua_Number

typedef double lua_Number;

The type of numbers in Lua. By default, it is double, but that can be changed in
luaconf.h.

Through the configuration file you can change Lua to operate with another type for
numbers (e.g., float or long).

lua_objlen

[-0, +0, -]

size_t lua_objlen (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns the "length" of the value at the given acceptable index: for strings, this is the
string length; for tables, this is the result of the length operator (' #'); for userdata, this
is the size of the block of memory allocated for the userdata; for other values, it is 0.

lua_pcall

[-(nargs + 1), +(nresults|1), -]

int lua_pcall (lua_State *L, int nargs, int nresults, int

errfunc);

Calls a function in protected mode.

Both nargs and nresults have the same meaning as in lua_call. If there are no
errors during the call, lua_pcall behaves exactly like lua_call. However, if there is
any error, lua_pcall catches it, pushes a single value on the stack (the error
message), and returns an error code. Like lua_call, lua_pcall always removes the
function and its arguments from the stack.
If errfunc is 0, then the error message returned on the stack is exactly the original
error message. Otherwise, errfunc is the stack index of an error handler function. (In
the current implementation, this index cannot be a pseudo-index.) In case of runtime
errors, this function will be called with the error message and its return value will be
the message returned on the stack by lua_pcall.

Typically, the error handler function is used to add more debug information to the
error message, such as a stack traceback. Such information cannot be gathered
after the return of lua_pcall, since by then the stack has unwound.

The lua_pcall function returns 0 in case of success or one of the following error
codes (defined in lua.h):

 LUA_ERRRUN: a runtime error.

 LUA_ERRMEM: memory allocation error. For such errors, Lua does not call the
error handler function.
 LUA_ERRERR: error while running the error handler function.

lua_pop

[-n, +0, -]

void lua_pop (lua_State *L, int n);

Pops n elements from the stack.

lua_pushboolean

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushboolean (lua_State *L, int b);

Pushes a boolean value with value b onto the stack.

lua_pushcclosure

[-n, +1, m]

void lua_pushcclosure (lua_State *L, lua_CFunction fn, int

n);

Pushes a new C closure onto the stack.

When a C function is created, it is possible to associate some values with it, thus
creating a C closure (see §3.4); these values are then accessible to the function
whenever it is called. To associate values with a C function, first these values should
be pushed onto the stack (when there are multiple values, the first value is pushed
first). Then lua_pushcclosure is called to create and push the C function onto the
stack, with the argument n telling how many values should be associated with the
function. lua_pushcclosure also pops these values from the stack.

The maximum value for n is 255.

lua_pushcfunction

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_pushcfunction (lua_State *L, lua_CFunction f);

Pushes a C function onto the stack. This function receives a pointer to a C function
and pushes onto the stack a Lua value of type function that, when called, invokes
the corresponding C function.

Any function to be registered in Lua must follow the correct protocol to receive its
parameters and return its results (see lua_CFunction).

lua_pushcfunction is defined as a macro:

#define lua_pushcfunction(L,f) lua_pushcclosure(L,f,0)

lua_pushfstring

[-0, +1, m]

const char *lua_pushfstring (lua_State *L, const char

*fmt, ...);

Pushes onto the stack a formatted string and returns a pointer to this string. It is
similar to the C function sprintf, but has some important differences:

 You do not have to allocate space for the result: the result is a Lua string
and Lua takes care of memory allocation (and deallocation, through
garbage collection).
 The conversion specifiers are quite restricted. There are no flags, widths,
or precisions. The conversion specifiers can only be ' %%' (inserts a '%' in the
string), '%s' (inserts a zero-terminated string, with no size restrictions), ' %f'
(inserts a lua_Number), '%p' (inserts a pointer as a hexadecimal numeral),
'%d' (inserts an int), and '%c' (inserts an int as a character).
lua_pushinteger

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushinteger (lua_State *L, lua_Integer n);

Pushes a number with value n onto the stack.

lua_pushlightuserdata

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushlightuserdata (lua_State *L, void *p);

Pushes a light userdata onto the stack.

Userdata represent C values in Lua. A light userdata represents a pointer. It is a

value (like a number): you do not create it, it has no individual metatable, and it is not
collected (as it was never created). A light userdata is equal to "any" light userdata
with the same C address.

lua_pushliteral

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_pushliteral (lua_State *L, const char *s);

This macro is equivalent to lua_pushlstring, but can be used only when s is a literal
string. In these cases, it automatically provides the string length.

lua_pushlstring

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_pushlstring (lua_State *L, const char *s, size_t

len);

Pushes the string pointed to by s with size len onto the stack. Lua makes (or reuses)
an internal copy of the given string, so the memory at s can be freed or reused
immediately after the function returns. The string can contain embedded zeros.

lua_pushnil
[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushnil (lua_State *L);

Pushes a nil value onto the stack.

lua_pushnumber

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushnumber (lua_State *L, lua_Number n);

Pushes a number with value n onto the stack.

lua_pushstring

[-0, +1, m]

void lua_pushstring (lua_State *L, const char *s);

Pushes the zero-terminated string pointed to by s onto the stack. Lua makes (or
reuses) an internal copy of the given string, so the memory at s can be freed or
reused immediately after the function returns. The string cannot contain embedded
zeros; it is assumed to end at the first zero.

lua_pushthread

[-0, +1, -]

int lua_pushthread (lua_State *L);

Pushes the thread represented by L onto the stack. Returns 1 if this thread is the
main thread of its state.

lua_pushvalue

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_pushvalue (lua_State *L, int index);

Pushes a copy of the element at the given valid index onto the stack.
lua_pushvfstring

[-0, +1, m]

const char *lua_pushvfstring (lua_State *L,

const char *fmt,
va_list argp);

Equivalent to lua_pushfstring, except that it receives a va_list instead of a

variable number of arguments.

lua_rawequal

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_rawequal (lua_State *L, int index1, int index2);

Returns 1 if the two values in acceptable indices index1 and index2 are primitively
equal (that is, without calling metamethods). Otherwise returns 0. Also returns 0 if
any of the indices are non valid.

lua_rawget

[-1, +1, -]

void lua_rawget (lua_State *L, int index);

Similar to lua_gettable, but does a raw access (i.e., without metamethods).

lua_rawgeti

[-0, +1, -]

void lua_rawgeti (lua_State *L, int index, int n);

Pushes onto the stack the value t[n], where t is the value at the given valid index.
The access is raw; that is, it does not invoke metamethods.

lua_rawset
[-2, +0, m]

void lua_rawset (lua_State *L, int index);

Similar to lua_settable, but does a raw assignment (i.e., without metamethods).

lua_rawseti

[-1, +0, m]

void lua_rawseti (lua_State *L, int index, int n);

Does the equivalent of t[n] = v, where t is the value at the given valid index and v
is the value at the top of the stack.

This function pops the value from the stack. The assignment is raw; that is, it does
not invoke metamethods.

lua_Reader

typedef const char * (*lua_Reader) (lua_State *L,

void *data,
size_t *size);

The reader function used by lua_load. Every time it needs another piece of the
chunk, lua_load calls the reader, passing along its data parameter. The reader must
return a pointer to a block of memory with a new piece of the chunk and set size to
the block size. The block must exist until the reader function is called again. To
signal the end of the chunk, the reader must return NULL or set size to zero. The
reader function may return pieces of any size greater than zero.

lua_register

[-0, +0, e]

void lua_register (lua_State *L,

const char *name,
lua_CFunction f);

Sets the C function f as the new value of global name. It is defined as a macro:

#define lua_register(L,n,f) \
(lua_pushcfunction(L, f), lua_setglobal(L, n))
lua_remove

[-1, +0, -]

void lua_remove (lua_State *L, int index);

Removes the element at the given valid index, shifting down the elements above this
index to fill the gap. Cannot be called with a pseudo-index, because a pseudo-index
is not an actual stack position.

lua_replace

[-1, +0, -]

void lua_replace (lua_State *L, int index);

Moves the top element into the given position (and pops it), without shifting any
element (therefore replacing the value at the given position).

lua_resume

[-?, +?, -]

int lua_resume (lua_State *L, int narg);

Starts and resumes a coroutine in a given thread.

To start a coroutine, you first create a new thread (see lua_newthread); then you
push onto its stack the main function plus any arguments; then you call lua_resume,
with narg being the number of arguments. This call returns when the coroutine
suspends or finishes its execution. When it returns, the stack contains all values
passed to lua_yield, or all values returned by the body function. lua_resume returns
LUA_YIELD if the coroutine yields, 0 if the coroutine finishes its execution without
errors, or an error code in case of errors (see lua_pcall). In case of errors, the stack
is not unwound, so you can use the debug API over it. The error message is on the
top of the stack. To restart a coroutine, you put on its stack only the values to be
passed as results from yield, and then call lua_resume.

lua_setallocf

[-0, +0, -]

void lua_setallocf (lua_State *L, lua_Alloc f, void *ud);

Changes the allocator function of a given state to f with user data ud.

lua_setfenv

[-1, +0, -]

int lua_setfenv (lua_State *L, int index);

Pops a table from the stack and sets it as the new environment for the value at the
given index. If the value at the given index is neither a function nor a thread nor a
userdata, lua_setfenv returns 0. Otherwise it returns 1.

lua_setfield

[-1, +0, e]

void lua_setfield (lua_State *L, int index, const char *k);

Does the equivalent to t[k] = v, where t is the value at the given valid index and v
is the value at the top of the stack.

This function pops the value from the stack. As in Lua, this function may trigger a
metamethod for the "newindex" event (see §2.8).

lua_setglobal

[-1, +0, e]

void lua_setglobal (lua_State *L, const char *name);

Pops a value from the stack and sets it as the new value of global name. It is defined
as a macro:

#define lua_setglobal(L,s) lua_setfield(L,

LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, s)

lua_setmetatable

[-1, +0, -]

int lua_setmetatable (lua_State *L, int index);

Pops a table from the stack and sets it as the new metatable for the value at the
given acceptable index.

lua_settable

[-2, +0, e]

void lua_settable (lua_State *L, int index);

Does the equivalent to t[k] = v, where t is the value at the given valid index, v is
the value at the top of the stack, and k is the value just below the top.

This function pops both the key and the value from the stack. As in Lua, this function
may trigger a metamethod for the "newindex" event (see §2.8).

lua_settop

[-?, +?, -]

void lua_settop (lua_State *L, int index);

Accepts any acceptable index, or 0, and sets the stack top to this index. If the new
top is larger than the old one, then the new elements are filled with nil. If index is 0,
then all stack elements are removed.

lua_State

typedef struct lua_State lua_State;

Opaque structure that keeps the whole state of a Lua interpreter. The Lua library is
fully reentrant: it has no global variables. All information about a state is kept in this
structure.

A pointer to this state must be passed as the first argument to every function in the
library, except to lua_newstate, which creates a Lua state from scratch.

lua_status

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_status (lua_State *L);

Returns the status of the thread L.

The status can be 0 for a normal thread, an error code if the thread finished its
execution with an error, or LUA_YIELD if the thread is suspended.

lua_toboolean

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_toboolean (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts the Lua value at the given acceptable index to a C boolean value (0 or 1).
Like all tests in Lua, lua_toboolean returns 1 for any Lua value different from false
and nil; otherwise it returns 0. It also returns 0 when called with a non-valid index. (If
you want to accept only actual boolean values, use lua_isboolean to test the value's
type.)

lua_tocfunction

[-0, +0, -]

lua_CFunction lua_tocfunction (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts a value at the given acceptable index to a C function. That value must be a
C function; otherwise, returns NULL.

lua_tointeger

[-0, +0, -]

lua_Integer lua_tointeger (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts the Lua value at the given acceptable index to the signed integral type
lua_Integer. The Lua value must be a number or a string convertible to a number
(see §2.2.1); otherwise, lua_tointeger returns 0.

If the number is not an integer, it is truncated in some non-specified way.

lua_tolstring

[-0, +0, m]
const char *lua_tolstring (lua_State *L, int index, size_t
*len);

Converts the Lua value at the given acceptable index to a C string. If len is not NULL,
it also sets *len with the string length. The Lua value must be a string or a number;
otherwise, the function returns NULL. If the value is a number, then lua_tolstring
also changes the actual value in the stack to a string. (This change confuses
lua_next when lua_tolstring is applied to keys during a table traversal.)

lua_tolstring returns a fully aligned pointer to a string inside the Lua state. This
string always has a zero ('\0') after its last character (as in C), but can contain other
zeros in its body. Because Lua has garbage collection, there is no guarantee that the
pointer returned by lua_tolstring will be valid after the corresponding value is
removed from the stack.

lua_tonumber

[-0, +0, -]

lua_Number lua_tonumber (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts the Lua value at the given acceptable index to the C type lua_Number (see
lua_Number). The Lua value must be a number or a string convertible to a number
(see §2.2.1); otherwise, lua_tonumber returns 0.

lua_topointer

[-0, +0, -]

const void *lua_topointer (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts the value at the given acceptable index to a generic C pointer (void*). The
value can be a userdata, a table, a thread, or a function; otherwise, lua_topointer
returns NULL. Different objects will give different pointers. There is no way to convert
the pointer back to its original value.

Typically this function is used only for debug information.

lua_tostring

[-0, +0, m]

const char *lua_tostring (lua_State *L, int index);

Equivalent to lua_tolstring with len equal to NULL.

lua_tothread

[-0, +0, -]

lua_State *lua_tothread (lua_State *L, int index);

Converts the value at the given acceptable index to a Lua thread (represented as
lua_State*). This value must be a thread; otherwise, the function returns NULL.

lua_touserdata

[-0, +0, -]

void *lua_touserdata (lua_State *L, int index);

If the value at the given acceptable index is a full userdata, returns its block address.
If the value is a light userdata, returns its pointer. Otherwise, returns NULL.

lua_type

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_type (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns the type of the value in the given acceptable index, or LUA_TNONE for a non-
valid index (that is, an index to an "empty" stack position). The types returned by
lua_type are coded by the following constants defined in lua.h: LUA_TNIL,
LUA_TNUMBER, LUA_TBOOLEAN, LUA_TSTRING, LUA_TTABLE, LUA_TFUNCTION,
LUA_TUSERDATA, LUA_TTHREAD, and LUA_TLIGHTUSERDATA.

lua_typename

[-0, +0, -]

const char *lua_typename (lua_State *L, int tp);

Returns the name of the type encoded by the value tp, which must be one the
values returned by lua_type.
lua_Writer

typedef int (*lua_Writer) (lua_State *L,

const void* p,
size_t sz,
void* ud);

The type of the writer function used by lua_dump. Every time it produces another
piece of chunk, lua_dump calls the writer, passing along the buffer to be written ( p),
its size (sz), and the data parameter supplied to lua_dump.

The writer returns an error code: 0 means no errors; any other value means an error
and stops lua_dump from calling the writer again.

lua_xmove

[-?, +?, -]

void lua_xmove (lua_State *from, lua_State *to, int n);

Exchange values between different threads of the same global state.

This function pops n values from the stack from, and pushes them onto the stack to.

lua_yield

[-?, +?, -]

int lua_yield (lua_State *L, int nresults);

Yields a coroutine.

This function should only be called as the return expression of a C function, as

follows:

return lua_yield (L, nresults);

When a C function calls lua_yield in that way, the running coroutine suspends its
execution, and the call to lua_resume that started this coroutine returns. The
parameter nresults is the number of values from the stack that are passed as
results to lua_resume.

3.8 - The Debug Interface

Lua has no built-in debugging facilities. Instead, it offers a special interface by means
of functions and hooks. This interface allows the construction of different kinds of
debuggers, profilers, and other tools that need "inside information" from the
interpreter.

lua_Debug

typedef struct lua_Debug {

int event;
const char *name; /* (n) */
const char *namewhat; /* (n) */
const char *what; /* (S) */
const char *source; /* (S) */
int currentline; /* (l) */
int nups; /* (u) number of upvalues */
int linedefined; /* (S) */
int lastlinedefined; /* (S) */
char short_src[LUA_IDSIZE]; /* (S) */
/* private part */
other fields
} lua_Debug;

A structure used to carry different pieces of information about an active function.

lua_getstack fills only the private part of this structure, for later use. To fill the other
fields of lua_Debug with useful information, call lua_getinfo.

The fields of lua_Debug have the following meaning:

 source: If the function was defined in a string, then source is that string. If
the function was defined in a file, then source starts with a '@' followed by
the file name.
 short_src: a "printable" version of source, to be used in error messages.
 linedefined: the line number where the definition of the function starts.
 lastlinedefined: the line number where the definition of the function ends.
 what: the string "Lua" if the function is a Lua function, "C" if it is a
C function, "main" if it is the main part of a chunk, and "tail" if it was a
function that did a tail call. In the latter case, Lua has no other information
about the function.
 currentline: the current line where the given function is executing. When
no line information is available, currentline is set to -1.
 name: a reasonable name for the given function. Because functions in Lua
are first-class values, they do not have a fixed name: some functions can
be the value of multiple global variables, while others can be stored only in
a table field. The lua_getinfo function checks how the function was called
to find a suitable name. If it cannot find a name, then name is set to NULL.
 namewhat: explains the name field. The value of namewhat can be "global",
"local", "method", "field", "upvalue", or "" (the empty string), according
 to how the function was called. (Lua uses the empty string when no other
option seems to apply.)
 nups: the number of upvalues of the function.

lua_gethook

[-0, +0, -]

lua_Hook lua_gethook (lua_State *L);

Returns the current hook function.

lua_gethookcount

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_gethookcount (lua_State *L);

Returns the current hook count.

lua_gethookmask

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_gethookmask (lua_State *L);

Returns the current hook mask.

lua_getinfo

[-(0|1), +(0|1|2), m]

int lua_getinfo (lua_State *L, const char *what, lua_Debug

*ar);

Returns information about a specific function or function invocation.

To get information about a function invocation, the parameter ar must be a valid

activation record that was filled by a previous call to lua_getstack or given as
argument to a hook (see lua_Hook).
To get information about a function you push it onto the stack and start the what
string with the character '>'. (In that case, lua_getinfo pops the function in the top of
the stack.) For instance, to know in which line a function f was defined, you can write
the following code:

lua_Debug ar;
lua_getfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, "f"); /* get global
'f' */
lua_getinfo(L, ">S", &ar);
printf("%d\n", ar.linedefined);

Each character in the string what selects some fields of the structure ar to be filled or
a value to be pushed on the stack:

 'n': fills in the field name and namewhat;

 'S': fills in the fields source, short_src, linedefined, lastlinedefined, and
what;
 'l': fills in the field currentline;
 'u': fills in the field nups;
 'f': pushes onto the stack the function that is running at the given level;
 'L': pushes onto the stack a table whose indices are the numbers of the
lines that are valid on the function. (A valid line is a line with some
associated code, that is, a line where you can put a break point. Non-valid
lines include empty lines and comments.)

This function returns 0 on error (for instance, an invalid option in what).

lua_getlocal

[-0, +(0|1), -]

const char *lua_getlocal (lua_State *L, lua_Debug *ar, int

n);

Gets information about a local variable of a given activation record. The parameter
ar must be a valid activation record that was filled by a previous call to lua_getstack
or given as argument to a hook (see lua_Hook). The index n selects which local
variable to inspect (1 is the first parameter or active local variable, and so on, until
the last active local variable). lua_getlocal pushes the variable's value onto the
stack and returns its name.

Variable names starting with '(' (open parentheses) represent internal variables (loop
control variables, temporaries, and C function locals).

Returns NULL (and pushes nothing) when the index is greater than the number of
active local variables.
lua_getstack

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_getstack (lua_State *L, int level, lua_Debug *ar);

Get information about the interpreter runtime stack.

This function fills parts of a lua_Debug structure with an identification of the activation
record of the function executing at a given level. Level 0 is the current running
function, whereas level n+1 is the function that has called level n. When there are no
errors, lua_getstack returns 1; when called with a level greater than the stack depth,
it returns 0.

lua_getupvalue

[-0, +(0|1), -]

const char *lua_getupvalue (lua_State *L, int funcindex, int

n);

Gets information about a closure's upvalue. (For Lua functions, upvalues are the
external local variables that the function uses, and that are consequently included in
its closure.) lua_getupvalue gets the index n of an upvalue, pushes the upvalue's
value onto the stack, and returns its name. funcindex points to the closure in the
stack. (Upvalues have no particular order, as they are active through the whole
function. So, they are numbered in an arbitrary order.)

Returns NULL (and pushes nothing) when the index is greater than the number of
upvalues. For C functions, this function uses the empty string "" as a name for all
upvalues.

lua_Hook

typedef void (*lua_Hook) (lua_State *L, lua_Debug *ar);

Type for debugging hook functions.

Whenever a hook is called, its ar argument has its field event set to the specific
event that triggered the hook. Lua identifies these events with the following
constants: LUA_HOOKCALL, LUA_HOOKRET, LUA_HOOKTAILRET, LUA_HOOKLINE, and
LUA_HOOKCOUNT. Moreover, for line events, the field currentline is also set. To get
the value of any other field in ar, the hook must call lua_getinfo. For return events,
event can be LUA_HOOKRET, the normal value, or LUA_HOOKTAILRET. In the latter case,
Lua is simulating a return from a function that did a tail call; in this case, it is useless
to call lua_getinfo.

While Lua is running a hook, it disables other calls to hooks. Therefore, if a hook
calls back Lua to execute a function or a chunk, this execution occurs without any
calls to hooks.

lua_sethook

[-0, +0, -]

int lua_sethook (lua_State *L, lua_Hook f, int mask, int

count);

Sets the debugging hook function.

Argument f is the hook function. mask specifies on which events the hook will be
called: it is formed by a bitwise or of the constants LUA_MASKCALL, LUA_MASKRET,
LUA_MASKLINE, and LUA_MASKCOUNT. The count argument is only meaningful when the
mask includes LUA_MASKCOUNT. For each event, the hook is called as explained
below:

 The call hook: is called when the interpreter calls a function. The hook is
called just after Lua enters the new function, before the function gets its
arguments.
 The return hook: is called when the interpreter returns from a function.
The hook is called just before Lua leaves the function. You have no access
to the values to be returned by the function.
 The line hook: is called when the interpreter is about to start the execution
of a new line of code, or when it jumps back in the code (even to the same
line). (This event only happens while Lua is executing a Lua function.)
 The count hook: is called after the interpreter executes every count
instructions. (This event only happens while Lua is executing a Lua
function.)

A hook is disabled by setting mask to zero.

lua_setlocal

[-(0|1), +0, -]

const char *lua_setlocal (lua_State *L, lua_Debug *ar, int

n);

Sets the value of a local variable of a given activation record. Parameters ar and n
are as in lua_getlocal (see lua_getlocal). lua_setlocal assigns the value at the
top of the stack to the variable and returns its name. It also pops the value from the
stack.

Returns NULL (and pops nothing) when the index is greater than the number of active
local variables.

lua_setupvalue

[-(0|1), +0, -]

const char *lua_setupvalue (lua_State *L, int funcindex, int

n);

Sets the value of a closure's upvalue. It assigns the value at the top of the stack to
the upvalue and returns its name. It also pops the value from the stack. Parameters
funcindex and n are as in the lua_getupvalue (see lua_getupvalue).

Returns NULL (and pops nothing) when the index is greater than the number of
upvalues.

4 - The Auxiliary Library

The auxiliary library provides several convenient functions to interface C with Lua.
While the basic API provides the primitive functions for all interactions between C
and Lua, the auxiliary library provides higher-level functions for some common tasks.

All functions from the auxiliary library are defined in header file lauxlib.h and have a
prefix luaL_.

All functions in the auxiliary library are built on top of the basic API, and so they
provide nothing that cannot be done with this API.

Several functions in the auxiliary library are used to check C function arguments.
Their names are always luaL_check* or luaL_opt*. All of these functions throw an
error if the check is not satisfied. Because the error message is formatted for
arguments (e.g., "bad argument #1"), you should not use these functions for other
stack values.

4.1 - Functions and Types

Here we list all functions and types from the auxiliary library in alphabetical order.

luaL_addchar
[-0, +0, m]

void luaL_addchar (luaL_Buffer *B, char c);

Adds the character c to the buffer B (see luaL_Buffer).

luaL_addlstring

[-0, +0, m]

void luaL_addlstring (luaL_Buffer *B, const char *s, size_t

l);

Adds the string pointed to by s with length l to the buffer B (see luaL_Buffer). The
string may contain embedded zeros.

luaL_addsize

[-0, +0, m]

void luaL_addsize (luaL_Buffer *B, size_t n);

Adds to the buffer B (see luaL_Buffer) a string of length n previously copied to the
buffer area (see luaL_prepbuffer).

luaL_addstring

[-0, +0, m]

void luaL_addstring (luaL_Buffer *B, const char *s);

Adds the zero-terminated string pointed to by s to the buffer B (see luaL_Buffer).

The string may not contain embedded zeros.

luaL_addvalue

[-1, +0, m]

void luaL_addvalue (luaL_Buffer *B);

Adds the value at the top of the stack to the buffer B (see luaL_Buffer). Pops the
value.
This is the only function on string buffers that can (and must) be called with an extra
element on the stack, which is the value to be added to the buffer.

luaL_argcheck

[-0, +0, v]

void luaL_argcheck (lua_State *L,

int cond,
int narg,
const char *extramsg);

Checks whether cond is true. If not, raises an error with the following message,
where func is retrieved from the call stack:

bad argument #<narg> to <func> (<extramsg>)

luaL_argerror

[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_argerror (lua_State *L, int narg, const char

*extramsg);

Raises an error with the following message, where func is retrieved from the call
stack:

bad argument #<narg> to <func> (<extramsg>)

This function never returns, but it is an idiom to use it in C functions as return

luaL_argerror(args).

luaL_Buffer

typedef struct luaL_Buffer luaL_Buffer;

Type for a string buffer.

A string buffer allows C code to build Lua strings piecemeal. Its pattern of use is as
follows:

 First you declare a variable b of type luaL_Buffer.

 Then you initialize it with a call luaL_buffinit(L, &b).
 Then you add string pieces to the buffer calling any of the luaL_add*
functions.
  You finish by calling luaL_pushresult(&b). This call leaves the final string
on the top of the stack.

During its normal operation, a string buffer uses a variable number of stack slots. So,
while using a buffer, you cannot assume that you know where the top of the stack is.
You can use the stack between successive calls to buffer operations as long as that
use is balanced; that is, when you call a buffer operation, the stack is at the same
level it was immediately after the previous buffer operation. (The only exception to
this rule is luaL_addvalue.) After calling luaL_pushresult the stack is back to its level
when the buffer was initialized, plus the final string on its top.

luaL_buffinit

[-0, +0, e]

void luaL_buffinit (lua_State *L, luaL_Buffer *B);

Initializes a buffer B. This function does not allocate any space; the buffer must be
declared as a variable (see luaL_Buffer).

luaL_callmeta

[-0, +(0|1), e]

int luaL_callmeta (lua_State *L, int obj, const char *e);

Calls a metamethod.

If the object at index obj has a metatable and this metatable has a field e, this
function calls this field and passes the object as its only argument. In this case this
function returns 1 and pushes onto the stack the value returned by the call. If there is
no metatable or no metamethod, this function returns 0 (without pushing any value
on the stack).

luaL_checkany

[-0, +0, v]

void luaL_checkany (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function has an argument of any type (including nil) at position
narg.
luaL_checkint

[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_checkint (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a number and returns this number
cast to an int.

luaL_checkinteger

[-0, +0, v]

lua_Integer luaL_checkinteger (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a number and returns this number
cast to a lua_Integer.

luaL_checklong

[-0, +0, v]

long luaL_checklong (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a number and returns this number
cast to a long.

luaL_checklstring

[-0, +0, v]

const char *luaL_checklstring (lua_State *L, int narg,

size_t *l);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a string and returns this string; if l is
not NULL fills *l with the string's length.

This function uses lua_tolstring to get its result, so all conversions and caveats of
that function apply here.

luaL_checknumber
[-0, +0, v]

lua_Number luaL_checknumber (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a number and returns this number.

luaL_checkoption

[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_checkoption (lua_State *L,

int narg,
const char *def,
const char *const lst[]);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a string and searches for this string in
the array lst (which must be NULL-terminated). Returns the index in the array
where the string was found. Raises an error if the argument is not a string or if the
string cannot be found.

If def is not NULL, the function uses def as a default value when there is no argument
narg or if this argument is nil.

This is a useful function for mapping strings to C enums. (The usual convention in
Lua libraries is to use strings instead of numbers to select options.)

luaL_checkstack

[-0, +0, v]

void luaL_checkstack (lua_State *L, int sz, const char

*msg);

Grows the stack size to top + sz elements, raising an error if the stack cannot grow
to that size. msg is an additional text to go into the error message.

luaL_checkstring

[-0, +0, v]

const char *luaL_checkstring (lua_State *L, int narg);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a string and returns this string.
This function uses lua_tolstring to get its result, so all conversions and caveats of
that function apply here.

luaL_checktype

[-0, +0, v]

void luaL_checktype (lua_State *L, int narg, int t);

Checks whether the function argument narg has type t. See lua_type for the
encoding of types for t.

luaL_checkudata

[-0, +0, v]

void *luaL_checkudata (lua_State *L, int narg, const char

*tname);

Checks whether the function argument narg is a userdata of the type tname (see
luaL_newmetatable).

luaL_dofile

[-0, +?, m]

int luaL_dofile (lua_State *L, const char *filename);

Loads and runs the given file. It is defined as the following macro:

(luaL_loadfile(L, filename) || lua_pcall(L, 0,

LUA_MULTRET, 0))

It returns 0 if there are no errors or 1 in case of errors.

luaL_dostring

[-0, +?, m]

int luaL_dostring (lua_State *L, const char *str);

Loads and runs the given string. It is defined as the following macro:
 (luaL_loadstring(L, str) || lua_pcall(L, 0,
LUA_MULTRET, 0))

It returns 0 if there are no errors or 1 in case of errors.

luaL_error

[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_error (lua_State *L, const char *fmt, ...);

Raises an error. The error message format is given by fmt plus any extra arguments,
following the same rules of lua_pushfstring. It also adds at the beginning of the
message the file name and the line number where the error occurred, if this
information is available.

This function never returns, but it is an idiom to use it in C functions as return

luaL_error(args).

luaL_getmetafield

[-0, +(0|1), m]

int luaL_getmetafield (lua_State *L, int obj, const char

*e);

Pushes onto the stack the field e from the metatable of the object at index obj. If the
object does not have a metatable, or if the metatable does not have this field, returns
0 and pushes nothing.

luaL_getmetatable

[-0, +1, -]

void luaL_getmetatable (lua_State *L, const char *tname);

Pushes onto the stack the metatable associated with name tname in the registry (see
luaL_newmetatable).

luaL_gsub

[-0, +1, m]
const char *luaL_gsub (lua_State *L,
const char *s,
const char *p,
const char *r);

Creates a copy of string s by replacing any occurrence of the string p with the string
r. Pushes the resulting string on the stack and returns it.

luaL_loadbuffer

[-0, +1, m]

int luaL_loadbuffer (lua_State *L,

const char *buff,
size_t sz,
const char *name);

Loads a buffer as a Lua chunk. This function uses lua_load to load the chunk in the
buffer pointed to by buff with size sz.

This function returns the same results as lua_load. name is the chunk name, used for
debug information and error messages.

luaL_loadfile

[-0, +1, m]

int luaL_loadfile (lua_State *L, const char *filename);

Loads a file as a Lua chunk. This function uses lua_load to load the chunk in the file
named filename. If filename is NULL, then it loads from the standard input. The first
line in the file is ignored if it starts with a #.

This function returns the same results as lua_load, but it has an extra error code
LUA_ERRFILE if it cannot open/read the file.

As lua_load, this function only loads the chunk; it does not run it.

luaL_loadstring

[-0, +1, m]

int luaL_loadstring (lua_State *L, const char *s);

Loads a string as a Lua chunk. This function uses lua_load to load the chunk in the
zero-terminated string s.

This function returns the same results as lua_load.

Also as lua_load, this function only loads the chunk; it does not run it.

luaL_newmetatable

[-0, +1, m]

int luaL_newmetatable (lua_State *L, const char *tname);

If the registry already has the key tname, returns 0. Otherwise, creates a new table to
be used as a metatable for userdata, adds it to the registry with key tname, and
returns 1.

In both cases pushes onto the stack the final value associated with tname in the
registry.

luaL_newstate

[-0, +0, -]

lua_State *luaL_newstate (void);

Creates a new Lua state. It calls lua_newstate with an allocator based on the
standard C realloc function and then sets a panic function (see lua_atpanic) that
prints an error message to the standard error output in case of fatal errors.

Returns the new state, or NULL if there is a memory allocation error.

luaL_openlibs

[-0, +0, m]

void luaL_openlibs (lua_State *L);

Opens all standard Lua libraries into the given state.

luaL_optint
[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_optint (lua_State *L, int narg, int d);

If the function argument narg is a number, returns this number cast to an int. If this
argument is absent or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

luaL_optinteger

[-0, +0, v]

lua_Integer luaL_optinteger (lua_State *L,

int narg,
lua_Integer d);

If the function argument narg is a number, returns this number cast to a lua_Integer.
If this argument is absent or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

luaL_optlong

[-0, +0, v]

long luaL_optlong (lua_State *L, int narg, long d);

If the function argument narg is a number, returns this number cast to a long. If this
argument is absent or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

luaL_optlstring

[-0, +0, v]

const char *luaL_optlstring (lua_State *L,

int narg,
const char *d,
size_t *l);

If the function argument narg is a string, returns this string. If this argument is absent
or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

If l is not NULL, fills the position *l with the results's length.

luaL_optnumber
[-0, +0, v]

lua_Number luaL_optnumber (lua_State *L, int narg,

lua_Number d);

If the function argument narg is a number, returns this number. If this argument is
absent or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

luaL_optstring

[-0, +0, v]

const char *luaL_optstring (lua_State *L,

int narg,
const char *d);

If the function argument narg is a string, returns this string. If this argument is absent
or is nil, returns d. Otherwise, raises an error.

luaL_prepbuffer

[-0, +0, -]

char *luaL_prepbuffer (luaL_Buffer *B);

Returns an address to a space of size LUAL_BUFFERSIZE where you can copy a string
to be added to buffer B (see luaL_Buffer). After copying the string into this space
you must call luaL_addsize with the size of the string to actually add it to the buffer.

luaL_pushresult

[-?, +1, m]

void luaL_pushresult (luaL_Buffer *B);

Finishes the use of buffer B leaving the final string on the top of the stack.

luaL_ref

[-1, +0, m]

int luaL_ref (lua_State *L, int t);

Creates and returns a reference, in the table at index t, for the object at the top of
the stack (and pops the object).

A reference is a unique integer key. As long as you do not manually add integer keys
into table t, luaL_ref ensures the uniqueness of the key it returns. You can retrieve
an object referred by reference r by calling lua_rawgeti(L, t, r). Function
luaL_unref frees a reference and its associated object.

If the object at the top of the stack is nil, luaL_ref returns the constant LUA_REFNIL.
The constant LUA_NOREF is guaranteed to be different from any reference returned by
luaL_ref.

luaL_Reg

typedef struct luaL_Reg {

const char *name;
lua_CFunction func;
} luaL_Reg;

Type for arrays of functions to be registered by luaL_register. name is the function

name and func is a pointer to the function. Any array of luaL_Reg must end with an
sentinel entry in which both name and func are NULL.

luaL_register

[-(0|1), +1, m]

void luaL_register (lua_State *L,

const char *libname,
const luaL_Reg *l);

Opens a library.

When called with libname equal to NULL, it simply registers all functions in the list l
(see luaL_Reg) into the table on the top of the stack.

When called with a non-null libname, luaL_register creates a new table t, sets it as
the value of the global variable libname, sets it as the value of
package.loaded[libname], and registers on it all functions in the list l. If there is a
table in package.loaded[libname] or in variable libname, reuses this table instead of
creating a new one.

In any case the function leaves the table on the top of the stack.
luaL_typename

[-0, +0, -]

const char *luaL_typename (lua_State *L, int index);

Returns the name of the type of the value at the given index.

luaL_typerror

[-0, +0, v]

int luaL_typerror (lua_State *L, int narg, const char

*tname);

Generates an error with a message like the following:

location: bad argument narg to 'func' (tname expected,

got rt)

where location is produced by luaL_where, func is the name of the current function,
and rt is the type name of the actual argument.

luaL_unref

[-0, +0, -]

void luaL_unref (lua_State *L, int t, int ref);

Releases reference ref from the table at index t (see luaL_ref). The entry is
removed from the table, so that the referred object can be collected. The reference
ref is also freed to be used again.

If ref is LUA_NOREF or LUA_REFNIL, luaL_unref does nothing.

luaL_where

[-0, +1, m]

void luaL_where (lua_State *L, int lvl);

Pushes onto the stack a string identifying the current position of the control at level
lvl in the call stack. Typically this string has the following format:
 chunkname:currentline:

Level 0 is the running function, level 1 is the function that called the running function,
etc.

This function is used to build a prefix for error messages.

5 - Standard Libraries
The standard Lua libraries provide useful functions that are implemented directly
through the C API. Some of these functions provide essential services to the
language (e.g., type and getmetatable); others provide access to "outside" services
(e.g., I/O); and others could be implemented in Lua itself, but are quite useful or have
critical performance requirements that deserve an implementation in C (e.g.,
table.sort).

All libraries are implemented through the official C API and are provided as separate
C modules. Currently, Lua has the following standard libraries:

 basic library, which includes the coroutine sub-library;

 package library;
 string manipulation;
 table manipulation;
 mathematical functions (sin, log, etc.);
 input and output;
 operating system facilities;
 debug facilities.

Except for the basic and package libraries, each library provides all its functions as
fields of a global table or as methods of its objects.

To have access to these libraries, the C host program should call the luaL_openlibs
function, which opens all standard libraries. Alternatively, it can open them
individually by calling luaopen_base (for the basic library), luaopen_package (for the
package library), luaopen_string (for the string library), luaopen_table (for the table
library), luaopen_math (for the mathematical library), luaopen_io (for the I/O library),
luaopen_os (for the Operating System library), and luaopen_debug (for the debug
library). These functions are declared in lualib.h and should not be called directly:
you must call them like any other Lua C function, e.g., by using lua_call.

5.1 - Basic Functions

The basic library provides some core functions to Lua. If you do not include this
library in your application, you should check carefully whether you need to provide
implementations for some of its facilities.
assert (v [, message])

Issues an error when the value of its argument v is false (i.e., nil or false); otherwise,
returns all its arguments. message is an error message; when absent, it defaults to
"assertion failed!"

collectgarbage (opt [, arg])

This function is a generic interface to the garbage collector. It performs different

functions according to its first argument, opt:

 "stop": stops the garbage collector.

 "restart": restarts the garbage collector.
 "collect": performs a full garbage-collection cycle.
 "count": returns the total memory in use by Lua (in Kbytes).
 "step": performs a garbage-collection step. The step "size" is controlled by
arg (larger values mean more steps) in a non-specified way. If you want to
control the step size you must experimentally tune the value of arg.
Returns true if the step finished a collection cycle.
 "setpause": sets arg as the new value for the pause of the collector (see
§2.10). Returns the previous value for pause.
 "setstepmul": sets arg as the new value for the step multiplier of the
collector (see §2.10). Returns the previous value for step.

dofile (filename)

Opens the named file and executes its contents as a Lua chunk. When called
without arguments, dofile executes the contents of the standard input ( stdin).
Returns all values returned by the chunk. In case of errors, dofile propagates the
error to its caller (that is, dofile does not run in protected mode).

error (message [, level])

Terminates the last protected function called and returns message as the error
message. Function error never returns.

Usually, error adds some information about the error position at the beginning of the
message. The level argument specifies how to get the error position. With level 1
(the default), the error position is where the error function was called. Level 2 points
the error to where the function that called error was called; and so on. Passing a
level 0 avoids the addition of error position information to the message.

_G
A global variable (not a function) that holds the global environment (that is, _G._G =
_G). Lua itself does not use this variable; changing its value does not affect any
environment, nor vice-versa. (Use setfenv to change environments.)

getfenv ([f])

Returns the current environment in use by the function. f can be a Lua function or a
number that specifies the function at that stack level: Level 1 is the function calling
getfenv. If the given function is not a Lua function, or if f is 0, getfenv returns the
global environment. The default for f is 1.

getmetatable (object)

If object does not have a metatable, returns nil. Otherwise, if the object's metatable
has a "__metatable" field, returns the associated value. Otherwise, returns the
metatable of the given object.

ipairs (t)

Returns three values: an iterator function, the table t, and 0, so that the construction

for i,v in ipairs(t) do body end

will iterate over the pairs (1,t[1]), (2,t[2]), ···, up to the first integer key absent from
the table.

load (func [, chunkname])

Loads a chunk using function func to get its pieces. Each call to func must return a
string that concatenates with previous results. A return of an empty string, nil, or no
value signals the end of the chunk.

If there are no errors, returns the compiled chunk as a function; otherwise, returns nil
plus the error message. The environment of the returned function is the global
environment.

chunknameis used as the chunk name for error messages and debug information.
When absent, it defaults to "=(load)".

loadfile ([filename])
Similar to load, but gets the chunk from file filename or from the standard input, if no
file name is given.

loadstring (string [, chunkname])

Similar to load, but gets the chunk from the given string.

To load and run a given string, use the idiom

assert(loadstring(s))()

When absent, chunkname defaults to the given string.

next (table [, index])

Allows a program to traverse all fields of a table. Its first argument is a table and its
second argument is an index in this table. next returns the next index of the table
and its associated value. When called with nil as its second argument, next returns
an initial index and its associated value. When called with the last index, or with nil in
an empty table, next returns nil. If the second argument is absent, then it is
interpreted as nil. In particular, you can use next(t) to check whether a table is
empty.

The order in which the indices are enumerated is not specified, even for numeric
indices. (To traverse a table in numeric order, use a numerical for or the ipairs
function.)

The behavior of next is undefined if, during the traversal, you assign any value to a
non-existent field in the table. You may however modify existing fields. In particular,
you may clear existing fields.

pairs (t)

Returns three values: the next function, the table t, and nil, so that the construction

for k,v in pairs(t) do body end

will iterate over all key–value pairs of table t.

See function next for the caveats of modifying the table during its traversal.

pcall (f, arg1, ···)

Calls function f with the given arguments in protected mode. This means that any
error inside f is not propagated; instead, pcall catches the error and returns a status
code. Its first result is the status code (a boolean), which is true if the call succeeds
without errors. In such case, pcall also returns all results from the call, after this first
result. In case of any error, pcall returns false plus the error message.

print (···)

Receives any number of arguments, and prints their values to stdout, using the
tostring function to convert them to strings. print is not intended for formatted
output, but only as a quick way to show a value, typically for debugging. For
formatted output, use string.format.

rawequal (v1, v2)

Checks whether v1 is equal to v2, without invoking any metamethod. Returns a

boolean.

rawget (table, index)

Gets the real value of table[index], without invoking any metamethod. table must
be a table; index may be any value.

rawset (table, index, value)

Sets the real value of table[index] to value, without invoking any metamethod.
table must be a table, index any value different from nil, and value any Lua value.

This function returns table.

select (index, ···)

If index is a number, returns all arguments after argument number index. Otherwise,
index must be the string "#", and select returns the total number of extra arguments
it received.

setfenv (f, table)

Sets the environment to be used by the given function. f can be a Lua function or a
number that specifies the function at that stack level: Level 1 is the function calling
setfenv. setfenv returns the given function.
As a special case, when f is 0 setfenv changes the environment of the running
thread. In this case, setfenv returns no values.

setmetatable (table, metatable)

Sets the metatable for the given table. (You cannot change the metatable of other
types from Lua, only from C.) If metatable is nil, removes the metatable of the given
table. If the original metatable has a "__metatable" field, raises an error.

This function returns table.

tonumber (e [, base])

Tries to convert its argument to a number. If the argument is already a number or a

string convertible to a number, then tonumber returns this number; otherwise, it
returns nil.

An optional argument specifies the base to interpret the numeral. The base may be
any integer between 2 and 36, inclusive. In bases above 10, the letter 'A' (in either
upper or lower case) represents 10, 'B' represents 11, and so forth, with ' Z'
representing 35. In base 10 (the default), the number can have a decimal part, as
well as an optional exponent part (see §2.1). In other bases, only unsigned integers
are accepted.

tostring (e)

Receives an argument of any type and converts it to a string in a reasonable format.

For complete control of how numbers are converted, use string.format.

If the metatable of e has a "__tostring" field, then tostring calls the corresponding
value with e as argument, and uses the result of the call as its result.

type (v)

Returns the type of its only argument, coded as a string. The possible results of this
function are "nil" (a string, not the value nil), "number", "string", "boolean", "table",
"function", "thread", and "userdata".

unpack (list [, i [, j]])

Returns the elements from the given table. This function is equivalent to
 return list[i], list[i+1], ···, list[j]

except that the above code can be written only for a fixed number of elements. By
default, i is 1 and j is the length of the list, as defined by the length operator (see
§2.5.5).

_VERSION

A global variable (not a function) that holds a string containing the current interpreter
version. The current contents of this variable is " Lua 5.1".

xpcall (f, err)

This function is similar to pcall, except that you can set a new error handler.

xpcall calls function f in protected mode, using err as the error handler. Any error
inside f is not propagated; instead, xpcall catches the error, calls the err function
with the original error object, and returns a status code. Its first result is the status
code (a boolean), which is true if the call succeeds without errors. In this case,
xpcall also returns all results from the call, after this first result. In case of any error,
xpcall returns false plus the result from err.

5.2 - Coroutine Manipulation

The operations related to coroutines comprise a sub-library of the basic library and
come inside the table coroutine. See §2.11 for a general description of coroutines.

coroutine.create (f)

Creates a new coroutine, with body f. f must be a Lua function. Returns this new
coroutine, an object with type "thread".

coroutine.resume (co [, val1, ···])

Starts or continues the execution of coroutine co. The first time you resume a
coroutine, it starts running its body. The values val1, ··· are passed as the
arguments to the body function. If the coroutine has yielded, resume restarts it; the
values val1, ··· are passed as the results from the yield.

If the coroutine runs without any errors, resume returns true plus any values passed
to yield (if the coroutine yields) or any values returned by the body function (if the
coroutine terminates). If there is any error, resume returns false plus the error
message.
coroutine.running ()

Returns the running coroutine, or nil when called by the main thread.

coroutine.status (co)

Returns the status of coroutine co, as a string: "running", if the coroutine is running
(that is, it called status); "suspended", if the coroutine is suspended in a call to
yield, or if it has not started running yet; "normal" if the coroutine is active but not
running (that is, it has resumed another coroutine); and "dead" if the coroutine has
finished its body function, or if it has stopped with an error.

coroutine.wrap (f)

Creates a new coroutine, with body f. f must be a Lua function. Returns a function
that resumes the coroutine each time it is called. Any arguments passed to the
function behave as the extra arguments to resume. Returns the same values returned
by resume, except the first boolean. In case of error, propagates the error.

coroutine.yield (···)

Suspends the execution of the calling coroutine. The coroutine cannot be running a
C function, a metamethod, or an iterator. Any arguments to yield are passed as
extra results to resume.

5.3 - Modules
The package library provides basic facilities for loading and building modules in Lua.
It exports two of its functions directly in the global environment: require and module.
Everything else is exported in a table package.

module (name [, ···])

Creates a module. If there is a table in package.loaded[name], this table is the

module. Otherwise, if there is a global table t with the given name, this table is the
module. Otherwise creates a new table t and sets it as the value of the global name
and the value of package.loaded[name]. This function also initializes t._NAME with the
given name, t._M with the module (t itself), and t._PACKAGE with the package name
(the full module name minus last component; see below). Finally, module sets t as
the new environment of the current function and the new value of
package.loaded[name], so that require returns t.

If name is a compound name (that is, one with components separated by dots),
module creates (or reuses, if they already exist) tables for each component. For
instance, if name is a.b.c, then module stores the module table in field c of field b of
global a.

This function can receive optional options after the module name, where each option
is a function to be applied over the module.

require (modname)

Loads the given module. The function starts by looking into the package.loaded table
to determine whether modname is already loaded. If it is, then require returns the
value stored at package.loaded[modname]. Otherwise, it tries to find a loader for the
module.

To find a loader, require is guided by the package.loaders array. By changing this

array, we can change how require looks for a module. The following explanation is
based on the default configuration for package.loaders.

First require queries package.preload[modname]. If it has a value, this value (which

should be a function) is the loader. Otherwise require searches for a Lua loader
using the path stored in package.path. If that also fails, it searches for a C loader
using the path stored in package.cpath. If that also fails, it tries an all-in-one loader
(see package.loaders).

Once a loader is found, require calls the loader with a single argument, modname. If
the loader returns any value, require assigns the returned value to
package.loaded[modname]. If the loader returns no value and has not assigned any
value to package.loaded[modname], then require assigns true to this entry. In any
case, require returns the final value of package.loaded[modname].

If there is any error loading or running the module, or if it cannot find any loader for
the module, then require signals an error.

package.cpath

The path used by require to search for a C loader.

Lua initializes the C path package.cpath in the same way it initializes the Lua path
package.path, using the environment variable LUA_CPATH or a default path defined in
luaconf.h.
package.loaded

A table used by require to control which modules are already loaded. When you
require a module modname and package.loaded[modname] is not false, require simply
returns the value stored there.

package.loaders

A table used by require to control how to load modules.

Each entry in this table is a searcher function. When looking for a module, require
calls each of these searchers in ascending order, with the module name (the
argument given to require) as its sole parameter. The function can return another
function (the module loader) or a string explaining why it did not find that module (or
nil if it has nothing to say). Lua initializes this table with four functions.

The first searcher simply looks for a loader in the package.preload table.

The second searcher looks for a loader as a Lua library, using the path stored at
package.path. A path is a sequence of templates separated by semicolons. For each
template, the searcher will change each interrogation mark in the template by
filename, which is the module name with each dot replaced by a "directory
separator" (such as "/" in Unix); then it will try to open the resulting file name. So, for
instance, if the Lua path is the string

"./?.lua;./?.lc;/usr/local/?/init.lua"

the search for a Lua file for module foo will try to open the files ./foo.lua, ./foo.lc,
and /usr/local/foo/init.lua, in that order.

The third searcher looks for a loader as a C library, using the path given by the
variable package.cpath. For instance, if the C path is the string

"./?.so;./?.dll;/usr/local/?/init.so"

the searcher for module foo will try to open the files ./foo.so, ./foo.dll, and
/usr/local/foo/init.so, in that order. Once it finds a C library, this searcher first
uses a dynamic link facility to link the application with the library. Then it tries to find
a C function inside the library to be used as the loader. The name of this C function
is the string "luaopen_" concatenated with a copy of the module name where each
dot is replaced by an underscore. Moreover, if the module name has a hyphen, its
prefix up to (and including) the first hyphen is removed. For instance, if the module
name is a.v1-b.c, the function name will be luaopen_b_c.

The fourth searcher tries an all-in-one loader. It searches the C path for a library for
the root name of the given module. For instance, when requiring a.b.c, it will search
for a C library for a. If found, it looks into it for an open function for the submodule; in
our example, that would be luaopen_a_b_c. With this facility, a package can pack
several C submodules into one single library, with each submodule keeping its
original open function.

package.loadlib (libname, funcname)

Dynamically links the host program with the C library libname. Inside this library,
looks for a function funcname and returns this function as a C function. (So, funcname
must follow the protocol (see lua_CFunction)).

This is a low-level function. It completely bypasses the package and module system.
Unlike require, it does not perform any path searching and does not automatically
adds extensions. libname must be the complete file name of the C library, including if
necessary a path and extension. funcname must be the exact name exported by the
C library (which may depend on the C compiler and linker used).

This function is not supported by ANSI C. As such, it is only available on some

platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, BSD, plus other Unix systems that
support the dlfcn standard).

package.path

The path used by require to search for a Lua loader.

At start-up, Lua initializes this variable with the value of the environment variable
LUA_PATH or with a default path defined in luaconf.h, if the environment variable is
not defined. Any ";;" in the value of the environment variable is replaced by the
default path.

package.preload

A table to store loaders for specific modules (see require).

package.seeall (module)

Sets a metatable for module with its __index field referring to the global environment,
so that this module inherits values from the global environment. To be used as an
option to function module.

5.4 - String Manipulation

This library provides generic functions for string manipulation, such as finding and
extracting substrings, and pattern matching. When indexing a string in Lua, the first
character is at position 1 (not at 0, as in C). Indices are allowed to be negative and
are interpreted as indexing backwards, from the end of the string. Thus, the last
character is at position -1, and so on.

The string library provides all its functions inside the table string. It also sets a
metatable for strings where the __index field points to the string table. Therefore,
you can use the string functions in object-oriented style. For instance,
string.byte(s, i) can be written as s:byte(i).

The string library assumes one-byte character encodings.

string.byte (s [, i [, j]])

Returns the internal numerical codes of the characters s[i], s[i+1], ···, s[j]. The
default value for i is 1; the default value for j is i.

Note that numerical codes are not necessarily portable across platforms.

string.char (···)

Receives zero or more integers. Returns a string with length equal to the number of
arguments, in which each character has the internal numerical code equal to its
corresponding argument.

Note that numerical codes are not necessarily portable across platforms.

string.dump (function)

Returns a string containing a binary representation of the given function, so that a

later loadstring on this string returns a copy of the function. function must be a Lua
function without upvalues.

string.find (s, pattern [, init [, plain]])

Looks for the first match of pattern in the string s. If it finds a match, then find
returns the indices of s where this occurrence starts and ends; otherwise, it returns
nil. A third, optional numerical argument init specifies where to start the search; its
default value is 1 and can be negative. A value of true as a fourth, optional argument
plain turns off the pattern matching facilities, so the function does a plain "find
substring" operation, with no characters in pattern being considered "magic". Note
that if plain is given, then init must be given as well.

If the pattern has captures, then in a successful match the captured values are also
returned, after the two indices.

string.format (formatstring, ···)

Returns a formatted version of its variable number of arguments following the

description given in its first argument (which must be a string). The format string
follows the same rules as the printf family of standard C functions. The only
differences are that the options/modifiers *, l, L, n, p, and h are not supported and
that there is an extra option, q. The q option formats a string in a form suitable to be
safely read back by the Lua interpreter: the string is written between double quotes,
and all double quotes, newlines, embedded zeros, and backslashes in the string are
correctly escaped when written. For instance, the call
string.format('%q', 'a string with "quotes" and \n new
line')

will produce the string:

"a string with \"quotes\" and \

new line"

The options c, d, E, e, f, g, G, i, o, u, X, and x all expect a number as argument,

whereas q and s expect a string.

This function does not accept string values containing embedded zeros, except as
arguments to the q option.

string.gmatch (s, pattern)

Returns an iterator function that, each time it is called, returns the next captures from
pattern over string s. If pattern specifies no captures, then the whole match is
produced in each call.

As an example, the following loop

s = "hello world from Lua"

for w in string.gmatch(s, "%a+") do
print(w)
end

will iterate over all the words from string s, printing one per line. The next example
collects all pairs key=value from the given string into a table:
 t = {}
s = "from=world, to=Lua"
for k, v in string.gmatch(s, "(%w+)=(%w+)") do
t[k] = v
end

For this function, a '^' at the start of a pattern does not work as an anchor, as this
would prevent the iteration.

string.gsub (s, pattern, repl [, n])

Returns a copy of s in which all (or the first n, if given) occurrences of the pattern
have been replaced by a replacement string specified by repl, which can be a string,
a table, or a function. gsub also returns, as its second value, the total number of
matches that occurred.

If repl is a string, then its value is used for replacement. The character % works as
an escape character: any sequence in repl of the form %n, with n between 1 and 9,
stands for the value of the n-th captured substring (see below). The sequence %0
stands for the whole match. The sequence %% stands for a single %.

If repl is a table, then the table is queried for every match, using the first capture as
the key; if the pattern specifies no captures, then the whole match is used as the
key.

If repl is a function, then this function is called every time a match occurs, with all
captured substrings passed as arguments, in order; if the pattern specifies no
captures, then the whole match is passed as a sole argument.

If the value returned by the table query or by the function call is a string or a number,
then it is used as the replacement string; otherwise, if it is false or nil, then there is
no replacement (that is, the original match is kept in the string).

Here are some examples:

x = string.gsub("hello world", "(%w+)", "%1 %1")

--> x="hello hello world world"

x = string.gsub("hello world", "%w+", "%0 %0", 1)

--> x="hello hello world"

x = string.gsub("hello world from Lua", "(%w+)

%s*(%w+)", "%2 %1")
--> x="world hello Lua from"

x = string.gsub("home = $HOME, user = $USER", "%$

(%w+)", os.getenv)
 --> x="home = /home/roberto, user = roberto"

x = string.gsub("4+5 = $return 4+5$", "%$(.-)%$",

function (s)
return loadstring(s)()
end)
--> x="4+5 = 9"

local t = {name="lua", version="5.1"}

x = string.gsub("$name-$version.tar.gz", "%$(%w+)", t)
--> x="lua-5.1.tar.gz"

string.len (s)

Receives a string and returns its length. The empty string "" has length 0.
Embedded zeros are counted, so "a\000bc\000" has length 5.

string.lower (s)

Receives a string and returns a copy of this string with all uppercase letters changed
to lowercase. All other characters are left unchanged. The definition of what an
uppercase letter is depends on the current locale.

string.match (s, pattern [, init])

Looks for the first match of pattern in the string s. If it finds one, then match returns
the captures from the pattern; otherwise it returns nil. If pattern specifies no
captures, then the whole match is returned. A third, optional numerical argument
init specifies where to start the search; its default value is 1 and can be negative.

string.rep (s, n)

Returns a string that is the concatenation of n copies of the string s.

string.reverse (s)

Returns a string that is the string s reversed.

string.sub (s, i [, j])

Returns the substring of s that starts at i and continues until j; i and j can be
negative. If j is absent, then it is assumed to be equal to -1 (which is the same as
the string length). In particular, the call string.sub(s,1,j) returns a prefix of s with
length j, and string.sub(s, -i) returns a suffix of s with length i.
string.upper (s)

Receives a string and returns a copy of this string with all lowercase letters changed
to uppercase. All other characters are left unchanged. The definition of what a
lowercase letter is depends on the current locale.

5.4.1 - Patterns

Character Class:

A character class is used to represent a set of characters. The following

combinations are allowed in describing a character class:

 x: (where x is not one of the magic characters ^$()%.[]*+-?) represents

the character x itself.
 .: (a dot) represents all characters.
 %a: represents all letters.
 %c: represents all control characters.
 %d: represents all digits.
 %l: represents all lowercase letters.
 %p: represents all punctuation characters.
 %s: represents all space characters.
 %u: represents all uppercase letters.
 %w: represents all alphanumeric characters.
 %x: represents all hexadecimal digits.
 %z: represents the character with representation 0.
 %x: (where x is any non-alphanumeric character) represents the character
x. This is the standard way to escape the magic characters. Any
punctuation character (even the non magic) can be preceded by a ' %' when
used to represent itself in a pattern.
 [set]: represents the class which is the union of all characters in set. A
range of characters can be specified by separating the end characters of
the range with a '-'. All classes %x described above can also be used as
components in set. All other characters in set represent themselves. For
example, [%w_] (or [_%w]) represents all alphanumeric characters plus the
underscore, [0-7] represents the octal digits, and [0-7%l%-] represents
the octal digits plus the lowercase letters plus the ' -' character.

The interaction between ranges and classes is not defined. Therefore,

patterns like [%a-z] or [a-%%] have no meaning.

 [^set]: represents the complement of set, where set is interpreted as

above.

For all classes represented by single letters ( %a, %c, etc.), the corresponding
uppercase letter represents the complement of the class. For instance, %S represents
all non-space characters.
The definitions of letter, space, and other character groups depend on the current
locale. In particular, the class [a-z] may not be equivalent to %l.

Pattern Item:

A pattern item can be

 a single character class, which matches any single character in the class;
 a single character class followed by ' *', which matches 0 or more
repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always
match the longest possible sequence;
 a single character class followed by ' +', which matches 1 or more
repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always
match the longest possible sequence;
 a single character class followed by ' -', which also matches 0 or more
repetitions of characters in the class. Unlike ' *', these repetition items will
always match the shortest possible sequence;
 a single character class followed by ' ?', which matches 0 or 1 occurrence of
a character in the class;
 %n, for n between 1 and 9; such item matches a substring equal to the n-th
captured string (see below);
 %bxy, where x and y are two distinct characters; such item matches strings
that start with x, end with y, and where the x and y are balanced. This
means that, if one reads the string from left to right, counting +1 for an x
and -1 for a y, the ending y is the first y where the count reaches 0. For
instance, the item %b() matches expressions with balanced parentheses.

Pattern:

A pattern is a sequence of pattern items. A ' ^' at the beginning of a pattern anchors
the match at the beginning of the subject string. A ' $' at the end of a pattern anchors
the match at the end of the subject string. At other positions, ' ^' and '$' have no
special meaning and represent themselves.

Captures:

A pattern can contain sub-patterns enclosed in parentheses; they describe captures.

When a match succeeds, the substrings of the subject string that match captures are
stored (captured) for future use. Captures are numbered according to their left
parentheses. For instance, in the pattern "(a*(.)%w(%s*))", the part of the string
matching "a*(.)%w(%s*)" is stored as the first capture (and therefore has number 1);
the character matching "." is captured with number 2, and the part matching "%s*"
has number 3.

As a special case, the empty capture () captures the current string position (a
number). For instance, if we apply the pattern "()aa()" on the string "flaaap", there
will be two captures: 3 and 5.

A pattern cannot contain embedded zeros. Use %z instead.

5.5 - Table Manipulation
This library provides generic functions for table manipulation. It provides all its
functions inside the table table.

Most functions in the table library assume that the table represents an array or a list.
For these functions, when we talk about the "length" of a table we mean the result of
the length operator.

table.concat (table [, sep [, i [, j]]])

Given an array where all elements are strings or numbers, returns

table[i]..sep..table[i+1] ··· sep..table[j]. The default value for sep is the
empty string, the default for i is 1, and the default for j is the length of the table. If i
is greater than j, returns the empty string.

table.insert (table, [pos,] value)

Inserts element value at position pos in table, shifting up other elements to open
space, if necessary. The default value for pos is n+1, where n is the length of the
table (see §2.5.5), so that a call table.insert(t,x) inserts x at the end of table t.

table.maxn (table)

Returns the largest positive numerical index of the given table, or zero if the table
has no positive numerical indices. (To do its job this function does a linear traversal
of the whole table.)

table.remove (table [, pos])

Removes from table the element at position pos, shifting down other elements to
close the space, if necessary. Returns the value of the removed element. The default
value for pos is n, where n is the length of the table, so that a call table.remove(t)
removes the last element of table t.

table.sort (table [, comp])

Sorts table elements in a given order, in-place, from table[1] to table[n], where n
is the length of the table. If comp is given, then it must be a function that receives two
table elements, and returns true when the first is less than the second (so that not
comp(a[i+1],a[i]) will be true after the sort). If comp is not given, then the standard
Lua operator < is used instead.

The sort algorithm is not stable; that is, elements considered equal by the given
order may have their relative positions changed by the sort.

5.6 - Mathematical Functions

This library is an interface to the standard C math library. It provides all its functions
inside the table math.

math.abs (x)

Returns the absolute value of x.

math.acos (x)

Returns the arc cosine of x (in radians).

math.asin (x)

Returns the arc sine of x (in radians).

math.atan (x)

Returns the arc tangent of x (in radians).

math.atan2 (y, x)

Returns the arc tangent of y/x (in radians), but uses the signs of both parameters to
find the quadrant of the result. (It also handles correctly the case of x being zero.)

math.ceil (x)

Returns the smallest integer larger than or equal to x.

math.cos (x)

Returns the cosine of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.cosh (x)

Returns the hyperbolic cosine of x.

math.deg (x)

Returns the angle x (given in radians) in degrees.

math.exp (x)

Returns the value ex.

math.floor (x)

Returns the largest integer smaller than or equal to x.

math.fmod (x, y)

Returns the remainder of the division of x by y that rounds the quotient towards zero.

math.frexp (x)

Returns m and e such that x = m2e, e is an integer and the absolute value of m is in
the range [0.5, 1) (or zero when x is zero).

math.huge

The value HUGE_VAL, a value larger than or equal to any other numerical value.

math.ldexp (m, e)
Returns m2e (e should be an integer).

math.log (x)

Returns the natural logarithm of x.

math.log10 (x)

Returns the base-10 logarithm of x.

math.max (x, ···)

Returns the maximum value among its arguments.

math.min (x, ···)

Returns the minimum value among its arguments.

math.modf (x)

Returns two numbers, the integral part of x and the fractional part of x.

math.pi

The value of pi.

math.pow (x, y)

Returns xy. (You can also use the expression x^y to compute this value.)

math.rad (x)

Returns the angle x (given in degrees) in radians.

math.random ([m [, n]])

This function is an interface to the simple pseudo-random generator function rand

provided by ANSI C. (No guarantees can be given for its statistical properties.)

When called without arguments, returns a uniform pseudo-random real number in

the range [0,1). When called with an integer number m, math.random returns a
uniform pseudo-random integer in the range [1, m]. When called with two integer
numbers m and n, math.random returns a uniform pseudo-random integer in the range
[m, n].

math.randomseed (x)

Sets x as the "seed" for the pseudo-random generator: equal seeds produce equal
sequences of numbers.

math.sin (x)

Returns the sine of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.sinh (x)

Returns the hyperbolic sine of x.

math.sqrt (x)

Returns the square root of x. (You can also use the expression x^0.5 to compute this
value.)

math.tan (x)

Returns the tangent of x (assumed to be in radians).

math.tanh (x)

Returns the hyperbolic tangent of x.

5.7 - Input and Output Facilities

The I/O library provides two different styles for file manipulation. The first one uses
implicit file descriptors; that is, there are operations to set a default input file and a
default output file, and all input/output operations are over these default files. The
second style uses explicit file descriptors.

When using implicit file descriptors, all operations are supplied by table io. When
using explicit file descriptors, the operation io.open returns a file descriptor and then
all operations are supplied as methods of the file descriptor.

The table io also provides three predefined file descriptors with their usual meanings
from C: io.stdin, io.stdout, and io.stderr. The I/O library never closes these files.

Unless otherwise stated, all I/O functions return nil on failure (plus an error message
as a second result and a system-dependent error code as a third result) and some
value different from nil on success.

io.close ([file])

Equivalent to file:close(). Without a file, closes the default output file.

io.flush ()

Equivalent to file:flush over the default output file.

io.input ([file])

When called with a file name, it opens the named file (in text mode), and sets its
handle as the default input file. When called with a file handle, it simply sets this file
handle as the default input file. When called without parameters, it returns the
current default input file.

In case of errors this function raises the error, instead of returning an error code.

io.lines ([filename])

Opens the given file name in read mode and returns an iterator function that, each
time it is called, returns a new line from the file. Therefore, the construction

for line in io.lines(filename) do body end

will iterate over all lines of the file. When the iterator function detects the end of file, it
returns nil (to finish the loop) and automatically closes the file.
The call io.lines() (with no file name) is equivalent to io.input():lines(); that is,
it iterates over the lines of the default input file. In this case it does not close the file
when the loop ends.

io.open (filename [, mode])

This function opens a file, in the mode specified in the string mode. It returns a new
file handle, or, in case of errors, nil plus an error message.

The mode string can be any of the following:

 "r": read mode (the default);

 "w": write mode;
 "a": append mode;
 "r+": update mode, all previous data is preserved;
 "w+": update mode, all previous data is erased;
 "a+": append update mode, previous data is preserved, writing is only
allowed at the end of file.

The mode string can also have a 'b' at the end, which is needed in some systems to
open the file in binary mode. This string is exactly what is used in the standard C
function fopen.

io.output ([file])

Similar to io.input, but operates over the default output file.

io.popen (prog [, mode])

Starts program prog in a separated process and returns a file handle that you can
use to read data from this program (if mode is "r", the default) or to write data to this
program (if mode is "w").

This function is system dependent and is not available on all platforms.

io.read (···)

Equivalent to io.input():read.

io.tmpfile ()
Returns a handle for a temporary file. This file is opened in update mode and it is
automatically removed when the program ends.

io.type (obj)

Checks whether obj is a valid file handle. Returns the string "file" if obj is an open
file handle, "closed file" if obj is a closed file handle, or nil if obj is not a file
handle.

io.write (···)

Equivalent to io.output():write.

file:close ()

Closes file. Note that files are automatically closed when their handles are garbage
collected, but that takes an unpredictable amount of time to happen.

file:flush ()

Saves any written data to file.

file:lines ()

Returns an iterator function that, each time it is called, returns a new line from the
file. Therefore, the construction

for line in file:lines() do body end

will iterate over all lines of the file. (Unlike io.lines, this function does not close the
file when the loop ends.)

file:read (···)

Reads the file file, according to the given formats, which specify what to read. For
each format, the function returns a string (or a number) with the characters read, or
nil if it cannot read data with the specified format. When called without formats, it
uses a default format that reads the entire next line (see below).
The available formats are

 "*n": reads a number; this is the only format that returns a number instead
of a string.
 "*a": reads the whole file, starting at the current position. On end of file, it
returns the empty string.
 "*l": reads the next line (skipping the end of line), returning nil on end of
file. This is the default format.
 number: reads a string with up to this number of characters, returning nil
on end of file. If number is zero, it reads nothing and returns an empty
string, or nil on end of file.

file:seek ([whence] [, offset])

Sets and gets the file position, measured from the beginning of the file, to the
position given by offset plus a base specified by the string whence, as follows:

 "set": base is position 0 (beginning of the file);

 "cur": base is current position;
 "end": base is end of file;

In case of success, function seek returns the final file position, measured in bytes
from the beginning of the file. If this function fails, it returns nil, plus a string
describing the error.

The default value for whence is "cur", and for offset is 0. Therefore, the call
file:seek() returns the current file position, without changing it; the call
file:seek("set") sets the position to the beginning of the file (and returns 0); and
the call file:seek("end") sets the position to the end of the file, and returns its size.

file:setvbuf (mode [, size])

Sets the buffering mode for an output file. There are three available modes:

 "no": no buffering; the result of any output operation appears immediately.

 "full": full buffering; output operation is performed only when the buffer is
full (or when you explicitly flush the file (see io.flush)).
 "line": line buffering; output is buffered until a newline is output or there is
any input from some special files (such as a terminal device).

For the last two cases, size specifies the size of the buffer, in bytes. The default is
an appropriate size.

file:write (···)
Writes the value of each of its arguments to the file. The arguments must be strings
or numbers. To write other values, use tostring or string.format before write.

5.8 - Operating System Facilities

This library is implemented through table os.

os.clock ()

Returns an approximation of the amount in seconds of CPU time used by the

program.

os.date ([format [, time]])

Returns a string or a table containing date and time, formatted according to the given
string format.

If the time argument is present, this is the time to be formatted (see the os.time
function for a description of this value). Otherwise, date formats the current time.

If format starts with '!', then the date is formatted in Coordinated Universal Time.
After this optional character, if format is the string "*t", then date returns a table with
the following fields: year (four digits), month (1--12), day (1--31), hour (0--23), min (0--
59), sec (0--61), wday (weekday, Sunday is 1), yday (day of the year), and isdst
(daylight saving flag, a boolean).

If format is not "*t", then date returns the date as a string, formatted according to
the same rules as the C function strftime.

When called without arguments, date returns a reasonable date and time
representation that depends on the host system and on the current locale (that is,
os.date() is equivalent to os.date("%c")).

os.difftime (t2, t1)

Returns the number of seconds from time t1 to time t2. In POSIX, Windows, and
some other systems, this value is exactly t2-t1.

os.execute ([command])
This function is equivalent to the C function system. It passes command to be executed
by an operating system shell. It returns a status code, which is system-dependent. If
command is absent, then it returns nonzero if a shell is available and zero otherwise.

os.exit ([code])

Calls the C function exit, with an optional code, to terminate the host program. The
default value for code is the success code.

os.getenv (varname)

Returns the value of the process environment variable varname, or nil if the variable
is not defined.

os.remove (filename)

Deletes the file or directory with the given name. Directories must be empty to be
removed. If this function fails, it returns nil, plus a string describing the error.

os.rename (oldname, newname)

Renames file or directory named oldname to newname. If this function fails, it returns
nil, plus a string describing the error.

os.setlocale (locale [, category])

Sets the current locale of the program. locale is a string specifying a locale;
category is an optional string describing which category to change: "all",
"collate", "ctype", "monetary", "numeric", or "time"; the default category is "all".
The function returns the name of the new locale, or nil if the request cannot be
honored.

If locale is the empty string, the current locale is set to an implementation-defined

native locale. If locale is the string "C", the current locale is set to the standard C
locale.

When called with nil as the first argument, this function only returns the name of the
current locale for the given category.
os.time ([table])

Returns the current time when called without arguments, or a time representing the
date and time specified by the given table. This table must have fields year, month,
and day, and may have fields hour, min, sec, and isdst (for a description of these
fields, see the os.date function).

The returned value is a number, whose meaning depends on your system. In

POSIX, Windows, and some other systems, this number counts the number of
seconds since some given start time (the "epoch"). In other systems, the meaning is
not specified, and the number returned by time can be used only as an argument to
date and difftime.

os.tmpname ()

Returns a string with a file name that can be used for a temporary file. The file must
be explicitly opened before its use and explicitly removed when no longer needed.

On some systems (POSIX), this function also creates a file with that name, to avoid
security risks. (Someone else might create the file with wrong permissions in the
time between getting the name and creating the file.) You still have to open the file to
use it and to remove it (even if you do not use it).

When possible, you may prefer to use io.tmpfile, which automatically removes the
file when the program ends.

5.9 - The Debug Library

This library provides the functionality of the debug interface to Lua programs. You
should exert care when using this library. The functions provided here should be
used exclusively for debugging and similar tasks, such as profiling. Please resist the
temptation to use them as a usual programming tool: they can be very slow.
Moreover, several of these functions violate some assumptions about Lua code
(e.g., that variables local to a function cannot be accessed from outside or that
userdata metatables cannot be changed by Lua code) and therefore can
compromise otherwise secure code.

All functions in this library are provided inside the debug table. All functions that
operate over a thread have an optional first argument which is the thread to operate
over. The default is always the current thread.

debug.debug ()

Enters an interactive mode with the user, running each string that the user enters.
Using simple commands and other debug facilities, the user can inspect global and
local variables, change their values, evaluate expressions, and so on. A line
containing only the word cont finishes this function, so that the caller continues its
execution.

Note that commands for debug.debug are not lexically nested within any function,
and so have no direct access to local variables.

debug.getfenv (o)

Returns the environment of object o.

debug.gethook ([thread])

Returns the current hook settings of the thread, as three values: the current hook
function, the current hook mask, and the current hook count (as set by the
debug.sethook function).

debug.getinfo ([thread,] function [, what])

Returns a table with information about a function. You can give the function directly,
or you can give a number as the value of function, which means the function
running at level function of the call stack of the given thread: level 0 is the current
function (getinfo itself); level 1 is the function that called getinfo; and so on. If
function is a number larger than the number of active functions, then getinfo
returns nil.

The returned table can contain all the fields returned by lua_getinfo, with the string
what describing which fields to fill in. The default for what is to get all information
available, except the table of valid lines. If present, the option ' f' adds a field named
func with the function itself. If present, the option ' L' adds a field named activelines
with the table of valid lines.

For instance, the expression debug.getinfo(1,"n").name returns a table with a

name for the current function, if a reasonable name can be found, and the
expression debug.getinfo(print) returns a table with all available information about
the print function.

debug.getlocal ([thread,] level, local)

This function returns the name and the value of the local variable with index local of
the function at level level of the stack. (The first parameter or local variable has
index 1, and so on, until the last active local variable.) The function returns nil if
there is no local variable with the given index, and raises an error when called with a
level out of range. (You can call debug.getinfo to check whether the level is valid.)
Variable names starting with '(' (open parentheses) represent internal variables (loop
control variables, temporaries, and C function locals).

debug.getmetatable (object)

Returns the metatable of the given object or nil if it does not have a metatable.

debug.getregistry ()

Returns the registry table (see §3.5).

debug.getupvalue (func, up)

This function returns the name and the value of the upvalue with index up of the
function func. The function returns nil if there is no upvalue with the given index.

debug.setfenv (object, table)

Sets the environment of the given object to the given table. Returns object.

debug.sethook ([thread,] hook, mask [, count])

Sets the given function as a hook. The string mask and the number count describe
when the hook will be called. The string mask may have the following characters,
with the given meaning:

 "c": the hook is called every time Lua calls a function;

 "r": the hook is called every time Lua returns from a function;
 "l": the hook is called every time Lua enters a new line of code.

With a count different from zero, the hook is called after every count instructions.

When called without arguments, debug.sethook turns off the hook.

When the hook is called, its first parameter is a string describing the event that has
triggered its call: "call", "return" (or "tail return", when simulating a return from
a tail call), "line", and "count". For line events, the hook also gets the new line
number as its second parameter. Inside a hook, you can call getinfo with level 2 to
get more information about the running function (level 0 is the getinfo function, and
level 1 is the hook function), unless the event is "tail return". In this case, Lua is
only simulating the return, and a call to getinfo will return invalid data.

debug.setlocal ([thread,] level, local, value)

This function assigns the value value to the local variable with index local of the
function at level level of the stack. The function returns nil if there is no local
variable with the given index, and raises an error when called with a level out of
range. (You can call getinfo to check whether the level is valid.) Otherwise, it
returns the name of the local variable.

debug.setmetatable (object, table)

Sets the metatable for the given object to the given table (which can be nil).

debug.setupvalue (func, up, value)

This function assigns the value value to the upvalue with index up of the function
func. The function returns nil if there is no upvalue with the given index. Otherwise, it
returns the name of the upvalue.

debug.traceback ([thread,] [message] [, level])

Returns a string with a traceback of the call stack. An optional message string is
appended at the beginning of the traceback. An optional level number tells at which
level to start the traceback (default is 1, the function calling traceback).

6 - Lua Stand-alone
Although Lua has been designed as an extension language, to be embedded in a
host C program, it is also frequently used as a stand-alone language. An interpreter
for Lua as a stand-alone language, called simply lua, is provided with the standard
distribution. The stand-alone interpreter includes all standard libraries, including the
debug library. Its usage is:

lua [options] [script [args]]

The options are:

 -e stat: executes string stat;

 -l mod: "requires" mod;
  -i: enters interactive mode after running script;
 -v: prints version information;
 --: stops handling options;
 -: executes stdin as a file and stops handling options.

After handling its options, lua runs the given script, passing to it the given args as
string arguments. When called without arguments, lua behaves as lua -v -i when
the standard input (stdin) is a terminal, and as lua - otherwise.

Before running any argument, the interpreter checks for an environment variable
LUA_INIT. If its format is @filename, then lua executes the file. Otherwise, lua
executes the string itself.

All options are handled in order, except -i. For instance, an invocation like

$ lua -e'a=1' -e 'print(a)' script.lua

will first set a to 1, then print the value of a (which is '1'), and finally run the file
script.lua with no arguments. (Here $ is the shell prompt. Your prompt may be
different.)

Before starting to run the script, lua collects all arguments in the command line in a
global table called arg. The script name is stored at index 0, the first argument after
the script name goes to index 1, and so on. Any arguments before the script name
(that is, the interpreter name plus the options) go to negative indices. For instance, in
the call

$ lua -la b.lua t1 t2

the interpreter first runs the file a.lua, then creates a table

arg = { [-2] = "lua", [-1] = "-la",

[0] = "b.lua",
[1] = "t1", [2] = "t2" }

and finally runs the file b.lua. The script is called with arg[1], arg[2], ··· as
arguments; it can also access these arguments with the vararg expression ' ...'.

In interactive mode, if you write an incomplete statement, the interpreter waits for its
completion by issuing a different prompt.

If the global variable _PROMPT contains a string, then its value is used as the prompt.
Similarly, if the global variable _PROMPT2 contains a string, its value is used as the
secondary prompt (issued during incomplete statements). Therefore, both prompts
can be changed directly on the command line or in any Lua programs by assigning
to _PROMPT. See the next example:

$ lua -e"_PROMPT='myprompt> '" -i

(The outer pair of quotes is for the shell, the inner pair is for Lua.) Note the use of -i
to enter interactive mode; otherwise, the program would just end silently right after
the assignment to _PROMPT.

To allow the use of Lua as a script interpreter in Unix systems, the stand-alone
interpreter skips the first line of a chunk if it starts with #. Therefore, Lua scripts can
be made into executable programs by using chmod +x and the #! form, as in

#!/usr/local/bin/lua

(Of course, the location of the Lua interpreter may be different in your machine. If lua
is in your PATH, then

#!/usr/bin/env lua

is a more portable solution.)

7 - Incompatibilities with the Previous

Version
Here we list the incompatibilities that you may find when moving a program from
Lua 5.0 to Lua 5.1. You can avoid most of the incompatibilities compiling Lua with
appropriate options (see file luaconf.h). However, all these compatibility options will
be removed in the next version of Lua.

7.1 - Changes in the Language

 The vararg system changed from the pseudo-argument arg with a table
with the extra arguments to the vararg expression. (See compile-time
option LUA_COMPAT_VARARG in luaconf.h.)
 There was a subtle change in the scope of the implicit variables of the for
statement and for the repeat statement.
 The long string/long comment syntax ( [[string]]) does not allow nesting.
You can use the new syntax ([=[string]=]) in these cases. (See compile-
time option LUA_COMPAT_LSTR in luaconf.h.)

7.2 - Changes in the Libraries

 Function string.gfind was renamed string.gmatch. (See compile-time
option LUA_COMPAT_GFIND in luaconf.h.)
 When string.gsub is called with a function as its third argument, whenever
this function returns nil or false the replacement string is the whole match,
instead of the empty string.
 Function table.setn was deprecated. Function table.getn corresponds to
the new length operator ( #); use the operator instead of the function. (See
compile-time option LUA_COMPAT_GETN in luaconf.h.)
  Function loadlib was renamed package.loadlib. (See compile-time option
LUA_COMPAT_LOADLIB in luaconf.h.)
 Function math.mod was renamed math.fmod. (See compile-time option
LUA_COMPAT_MOD in luaconf.h.)
 Functions table.foreach and table.foreachi are deprecated. You can
use a for loop with pairs or ipairs instead.
 There were substantial changes in function require due to the new module
system. However, the new behavior is mostly compatible with the old, but
require gets the path from package.path instead of from LUA_PATH.
 Function collectgarbage has different arguments. Function gcinfo is
deprecated; use collectgarbage("count") instead.

7.3 - Changes in the API

 The luaopen_* functions (to open libraries) cannot be called directly, like a
regular C function. They must be called through Lua, like a Lua function.
 Function lua_open was replaced by lua_newstate to allow the user to set a
memory-allocation function. You can use luaL_newstate from the standard
library to create a state with a standard allocation function (based on
realloc).
 Functions luaL_getn and luaL_setn (from the auxiliary library) are
deprecated. Use lua_objlen instead of luaL_getn and nothing instead of
luaL_setn.
 Function luaL_openlib was replaced by luaL_register.
 Function luaL_checkudata now throws an error when the given value is not
a userdata of the expected type. (In Lua 5.0 it returned NULL.)

8 - The Complete Syntax of Lua

Here is the complete syntax of Lua in extended BNF. (It does not describe operator
precedences.)

chunk ::= {stat [`;´]} [laststat [`;´]]

block ::= chunk

stat ::= varlist `=´ explist |

functioncall |
do block end |
while exp do block end |
repeat block until exp |
if exp then block {elseif exp then block}
[else block] end |
for Name `=´ exp `,´ exp [`,´ exp] do block
end |
for namelist in explist do block end |
 function funcname funcbody |
local function Name funcbody |
local namelist [`=´ explist]

laststat ::= return [explist] | break

funcname ::= Name {`.´ Name} [`:´ Name]

varlist ::= var {`,´ var}

var ::= Name | prefixexp `[´ exp `]´ | prefixexp `.´

Name

namelist ::= Name {`,´ Name}

explist ::= {exp `,´} exp

exp ::= nil | false | true | Number | String | `...´

| function |
prefixexp | tableconstructor | exp binop exp |
unop exp

prefixexp ::= var | functioncall | `(´ exp `)´

functioncall ::= prefixexp args | prefixexp `:´ Name

args

args ::= `(´ [explist] `)´ | tableconstructor |

String

function ::= function funcbody

funcbody ::= `(´ [parlist] `)´ block end

parlist ::= namelist [`,´ `...´] | `...´

tableconstructor ::= `{´ [fieldlist] `}´

fieldlist ::= field {fieldsep field} [fieldsep]

field ::= `[´ exp `]´ `=´ exp | Name `=´ exp | exp

fieldsep ::= `,´ | `;´

binop ::= `+´ | `-´ | `*´ | `/´ | `^´ | `%´ | `..´ |

`<´ | `<=´ | `>´ | `>=´ | `==´ | `~=´ |
and | or

unop ::= `-´ | not | `#´

 Last update: Wed Jul 28 09:52:30 BRT 2010

Index
Lua functions   C API auxiliary library

_G file:close lua_Alloc luaL_Buffer

_VERSION file:flush lua_CFunction luaL_Reg
assert file:lines lua_Debug
collectgarbage file:read lua_Hook luaL_addchar
dofile file:seek lua_Integer luaL_addlstring
error file:setvbuf lua_Number luaL_addsize
getfenv file:write lua_Reader luaL_addstring
getmetatable lua_State luaL_addvalue
ipairs io.close lua_Writer luaL_argcheck
load io.flush luaL_argerror
loadfile io.input lua_atpanic luaL_buffinit
loadstring io.lines lua_call luaL_callmeta
module io.open lua_checkstack luaL_checkany
io.output lua_close luaL_checkint
next
io.popen lua_concat luaL_checkinteger
pairs
io.read lua_cpcall luaL_checklong
pcall
io.stderr lua_createtable luaL_checklstring
print luaL_checknumber
rawequal
io.stdin lua_dump
io.stdout lua_equal luaL_checkoption
rawget luaL_checkstack
io.tmpfile lua_error
rawset luaL_checkstring
io.type lua_gc
require luaL_checktype
io.write lua_getallocf
select luaL_checkudata
lua_getfenv
setfenv math.abs luaL_dofile
lua_getfield
setmetatable math.acos lua_getglobal luaL_dostring
tonumber math.asin lua_gethook luaL_error
tostring math.atan lua_gethookcount luaL_getmetafield
type math.atan2 lua_gethookmask luaL_getmetatable
unpack math.ceil lua_getinfo luaL_gsub
xpcall math.cos lua_getlocal luaL_loadbuffer
math.cosh lua_getmetatable luaL_loadfile
coroutine.create math.deg lua_getstack luaL_loadstring
coroutine.resume math.exp lua_gettable luaL_newmetatable
coroutine.running math.floor lua_gettop luaL_newstate
coroutine.status math.fmod lua_getupvalue luaL_openlibs
coroutine.wrap math.frexp lua_insert luaL_optint
coroutine.yield math.huge lua_isboolean luaL_optinteger
math.ldexp lua_iscfunction luaL_optlong
debug.debug math.log lua_isfunction luaL_optlstring
debug.getfenv math.log10 lua_islightuserdata luaL_optnumber
debug.gethook math.max lua_isnil luaL_optstring
debug.getinfo math.min lua_isnone luaL_prepbuffer
debug.getlocal math.modf lua_isnoneornil luaL_pushresult
debug.getmetatable math.pi lua_isnumber luaL_ref
debug.getregistry math.pow lua_isstring luaL_register
debug.getupvalue math.rad lua_istable luaL_typename
debug.setfenv math.random lua_isthread luaL_typerror
debug.sethook math.randomseed lua_isuserdata luaL_unref
debug.setlocal math.sin lua_lessthan luaL_where
debug.setmetatable math.sinh lua_load
debug.setupvalue math.sqrt lua_newstate
debug.traceback math.tan lua_newtable
math.tanh lua_newthread
lua_newuserdata
os.clock lua_next
os.date lua_objlen
os.difftime lua_pcall
os.execute lua_pop
os.exit lua_pushboolean
os.getenv lua_pushcclosure
os.remove lua_pushcfunction
os.rename lua_pushfstring
os.setlocale lua_pushinteger
os.time lua_pushlightuserdata
os.tmpname lua_pushliteral
lua_pushlstring
package.cpath lua_pushnil
package.loaded lua_pushnumber
package.loaders lua_pushstring
package.loadlib lua_pushthread
package.path lua_pushvalue
package.preload lua_pushvfstring
package.seeall lua_rawequal
lua_rawget
string.byte lua_rawgeti
string.char lua_rawset
string.dump lua_rawseti
string.find lua_register
string.format lua_remove
string.gmatch lua_replace
string.gsub lua_resume
string.len lua_setallocf
string.lower lua_setfenv
string.match lua_setfield
string.rep lua_setglobal
string.reverse lua_sethook
string.sub lua_setlocal
string.upper lua_setmetatable
table.concat lua_settable
table.insert lua_settop
table.maxn lua_setupvalue
table.remove lua_status
table.sort lua_toboolean
lua_tocfunction
lua_tointeger
lua_tolstring
lua_tonumber
lua_topointer
lua_tostring
lua_tothread
lua_touserdata
lua_type
lua_typename
lua_upvalueindex
lua_xmove
lua_yield