Helpers for table creation/modification

These helpers offer a convenient syntax for push() and lua_rawset.

See also

Syntactic sugar: new_table and rawset_table

A short tutorial that demonstrates the most important features.

Header:

#include <apollo/create_table.hpp>

Free functions

rawset_table()

table-setter rawset_table(lua_State* L, int table_idx);

Returns a table setter that will modify the table at index table_idx on the stack of L.

new_table()

table-setter new_table(lua_State* L);

Pushes a new table onto L‘s stack and returns a table setter that will modify it.

Table setter objects

Table setter objects modify their reference tables using lua_rawset with the methods below. All methods return a rvalue reference to the table setter they were called on so that they are chainable.

You should not store a table setter! Just use it in the expression it was created in.

Warning

Due to C++’s undefined order of argument evaluation, it is important that any methods you call in this expression leave the Lua stack balanced.

operator()

template <typename K, typename V>
table-setter&& operator() (K&& key, V&& value);

Sets value as the value of the current table at key.

subtable()

template <typename K>
table-setter&& subtable(K&& key);

Creates a new table, sets it as the value of the current table at key and makes the table setter modify that new table until end_subtable() is called. Note that every call to subtable() must be matched by a corresponding call to end_subtable(), even if you do not intend to modify the previous table.

Subtables may be nested.

end_subtable()

table-setter&& end_subtable();

Ends a subtable began by subtable(). See that method for more information.

thistable_as()

template <typename K>
table-setter&& thistable_as(K&& key);

Sets the current table as the value of itself at key.

thistable_index()

table-setter&& thistable_index();

Equivalent to calling thistable_as() with "__index" as key.

metatable()

table-setter&& metatable();

If the current table does not have a metatable, creates a new table and sets it as metatable. Then makes the table setter modify the current table’s metatable until end_metatable() is called. Note that every call to metatable() must be matched by a corresponding call to end_metatable(), even if you do not intend to modify the previous table.

metatable() calls may be nested, they will modify the metatable’s metatable and so on.

end_metatable()

table-setter&& end_metatable();

Ends a metatable began by metatable(). See that method for more information.