Self-referring to a table?

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Sslaxx
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Self-referring to a table?

Post by Sslaxx »

This might well be a stupid question, but I haven't been able to locate any answers in the Lua documentation, so...

Is there a way to have a table refer to itself?
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bartbes
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Re: Self-referring to a table?

Post by bartbes »

You mean in a method?
Like:

Code: Select all

sometable = {}
sometable.value = 3

function sometable:somefunction() --note the : there
    return self.value
end

print(sometable:somefunction()) --again, note the :
-- output = 3
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Sslaxx
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Re: Self-referring to a table?

Post by Sslaxx »

Ah. I was trying it as "spriteInfo.Draw" - not using it as a method. I'll give that way a go, thanks!

That said, I'd imagine it would work the same way in a copy of the table - would it?
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Robin
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Re: Self-referring to a table?

Post by Robin »

What do you mean by "copy"? If all the functions are "copied"*, it will work.

*Although the functions are not actually copied, but referenced.
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Tenoch
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Re: Self-referring to a table?

Post by Tenoch »

Now this may be unrelated, but you can always do

Code: Select all

a = {}
a.myself = a
I'm not sure how that would be useful, since when you have "a", well, you have it already, so no need for "a.myself", but I felt like mentioning it anyway. Maybe someone will have an application for this.
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Robin
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Re: Self-referring to a table?

Post by Robin »

Tenoch wrote:I'm not sure how that would be useful, since when you have "a", well, you have it already, so no need for "a.myself", but I felt like mentioning it anyway. Maybe someone will have an application for this.
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