tableString(table) - Table to String

[Mazen]

Hello OTLand. Since I know by experience that sometimes it's hard to understand what's inside tables that you didn't write, that most of the times are returned by functions.

A good way to see exactly how a table looks like is to make it as a string.

Here is the script the will convert any table to a string:

function tableString(tb, showInt)
	local tb_string = ""
	local function table_calculate(tb, sub, key)
		if type(tb) == "table" then
			tb_string = tb_string .. ((type(key) == "string") and (key .. " = ") or ((type(key) == "number" and showInt) and "[".. key .."] = " or "")) .. "{"
			for k, v in pairs(tb) do
				if type(v) == "table" then
					table_calculate(v, (next(tb, k) and true or false), k)
				else
					if type(v) == "string" then
						v = "\"" .. v .. "\""
					elseif type(v) == "boolean" then
						v = (v and "true" or "false")
					elseif type(v) == "nil" then
						v = "nil"
					elseif type(v) == "function" then
						v = "function" .. "()"
					end
					tb_string = tb_string .. (type(k) == "string" and (k .. " = ") or (showInt and "[".. k .."] = " or "")) .. v .. (next(tb, k) and ", " or "")
				end
			end
			tb_string = tb_string .. "}" .. (sub and ", " or "")
		else
			return false
		end
		return true
	end
	
	-- Write maintable.
	if table_calculate(tb, false) then
		return tb_string
	else
		return false
	end
end

This one can be useful for you LUA scripters out there. The function is tested and will give you a perfect result.

Try it out yourself.

Note: It still doesn't support threads yet.

 

[Mock]

i have the same function in OTAL.
tableToString
saveTable
loadTable

function tableToString(tb) -- by Mock
	if type(tb) ~= "table" then
		return nil, error("bad argument #1 to 'saveTable' (table expected, got "..type(tb)..")", 2)
	end
	local str = "{"
	for k,d in pairs(tb) do
		if type(k) == 'string' then
			if type(d) == 'string' then
				str = str..""..k.."='"..d.."',"
			elseif type(d) == 'number' or type(d) == 'boolean' then
				str = str..""..k.."="..tostring(d)..","
			elseif type(d) == 'table' then
				str = str..'{'
				for e,f in pairs(d) do
					if type(e) == 'string' then
						if type(f) == 'string' then
							str = str..""..e.."='"..f.."',"
						elseif type(f) == 'number' or type(e) == 'boolean' then
							str = str..""..e.."="..tostring(f)..","
						elseif type(f) == 'table' then
							str = str..""..e.."="..tableToString(f)..","
						end
					elseif type(e) == 'number' then
						if type(f) == 'string' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]='"..f.."',"
						elseif type(f) == 'number' or type(f) == 'boolean' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]="..tostring(f)..","
						elseif type(f) == 'table' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]="..tableToString(f)..","
						end
					end
				end
				str = str..'},'
			end
		elseif type(k) == 'number' then
			if type(d) == 'string' then
				str = str.."["..k.."]='"..d.."',"
			elseif type(d) == 'number' or type(d) == 'boolean' then
				str = str.."["..k.."]="..tostring(d)..","
			elseif type(d) == 'table' then
				str = str..'{'
				for e,f in pairs(d) do
					if type(e) == 'string' then
						if type(f) == 'string' then
							str = str..""..e.."='"..f.."',"
						elseif type(f) == 'number' or type(e) == 'boolean' then
							str = str..""..e.."="..tostring(f)..","
						elseif type(f) == 'table' then
							str = str..""..e.."="..tableToString(f)..","
						end
					elseif type(e) == 'number' then
						if type(f) == 'string' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]='"..f.."',"
						elseif type(f) == 'number' or type(f) == 'boolean' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]="..tostring(f)..","
						elseif type(f) == 'table' then
							str = str.."["..e.."]="..tableToString(f)..","
						end
					end
				end
				str = str..'},'
			end
		end
	end
	local str = str.."}"
	if string.sub(str,string.len(str)-2,string.len(str)-2) == "," then
		str = string.sub(str,0,string.len(str)-3).."}"
	end
	return str
end

 

[Mazen]

@up, didn't know about that. xD

Update: Fixed a few bugs and made an option to show numeric key values. Example:

my_table = {"hi", cake = "blalalala"}
print(tableString(my_table, true))

Will return:

{[1] = "hi", cake = "blalalala"}

Use tableString(my_table, true) to show numeric key values, otherwise just use tableString(my_table).

 

[Mock]

good ^^
my version save to string all kind of table but it dont save functions and userdatas.

local tabl = {
{},[584]={},true,false,['omg'] = 'fail',t=q,1,5,7,{{{{{{{true,false,'var'}}}}}}}
}