Lua Iterators pairs and ipairs don't work correctly

[Joe Rod]

Hi, when i try to iterate a table it does not iterate in order, i.e.:

testTable =
{
   ["a"] = 2,
   ["b"] = 3,
   ["c"] = 4,
   ["d"] = 5
}
  for i,x in pairs(testTable) do
     print(i.."_"..x)
   end

prints:

a_2
d_5
c_4
b_3

How can be fixed?
Thanks in advance

 

[Santi]

The order when looping with pairs is undefined.
For this special case this will solve it:

local t = {nil, "a", "b", "c", "d"}
for k, v in pairs(t) do
print(k .. " _ " .. v);
end

 

[Joe Rod]

ok thanks

 

[Evil Hero]

The only way to get an ordered outcome is when you use a numeric index just like Santi already said but instead of pairs use

for x = 1,#t do

because this method is a lot faster then pairs or ipairs

 

[Joe Rod]

thanks