View source for Module:TableTools/doc

{{Shared Template Warning|Module:TableTools}}

This module includes a number of functions for dealing with Lua tables.
It is a meta-module, meant to be called from other Lua modules, and should not be called directly from #invoke.

== Module Quality ==
{{ModuleQuality}}

== Loading the module ==

To use any of the functions, first you must load the module.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local TableTools = require('Module:TableTools')
</syntaxhighlight>

== Functions ==
=== isPositiveInteger ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.isPositiveInteger(value)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns <code>true</code> if <code>''value''</code> is a positive integer, and <code>false</code> if not.
Although it doesn't operate on tables, it is included here as it is useful for determining whether a given table key is in the array part or the hash part of a table.

=== isNan ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.isNan(value)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns <code>true</code> if <code>''value''</code> is a [[NaN]] value, and <code>false</code> if not.
Although it doesn't operate on tables, it is included here as it is useful for determining whether a value can be a valid table key.
(Lua will generate an error if a NaN value is used as a table key.)

=== shallowClone ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.shallowClone(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns a clone of a table.
The value returned is a new table, but all subtables and functions are shared.
Metamethods are respected, but the returned table will have no metatable of its own.
If you want to make a new table with no shared subtables and with metatables transferred, you can use <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#mw.clone|mw.clone]]</code> instead.
If you want to make a new table with no shared subtables and without metatables transferred, use <code>[[#deepCopy|deepCopy]]</code> with the <code>noMetatable</code> option.

=== removeDuplicates ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.removeDuplicates(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Removes duplicate values from an array.
This function is only designed to work with standard arrays: keys that are not positive integers are ignored, as are all values after the first <code>nil</code> value.
(For arrays containing <code>nil</code> values, you can use <code>[[#compressSparseArray|compressSparseArray]]</code> first.) The function tries to preserve the order of the array: the earliest non-unique value is kept, and all subsequent duplicate values are removed.
For example, for the table <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 2, 2, 1}</syntaxhighlight> <code>removeDuplicates</code> will return <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{5, 4, 3, 2, 1}</syntaxhighlight>

=== numKeys ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.numKeys(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Takes a table <code>''t''</code> and returns an array containing the numbers of any positive integer keys that have non-nil values, sorted in numerical order.
For example, for the table <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{'foo', nil, 'bar', 'baz', a = 'b'}</syntaxhighlight>, <code>numKeys</code> will return <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{1, 3, 4}</syntaxhighlight>.

=== affixNums ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.affixNums(t, prefix, suffix)
</syntaxhighlight>

Takes a table <code>''t''</code> and returns an array containing the numbers of keys with the optional prefix <code>''prefix''</code> and the optional suffix <code>''suffix''</code>.
For example, for the table <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{a1 = 'foo', a3 = 'bar', a6 = 'baz'}</syntaxhighlight> and the prefix <code>'a'</code>, <code>affixNums</code> will return <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{1, 3, 6}</syntaxhighlight>.
All characters in <code>''prefix''</code> and <code>''suffix''</code> are interpreted literally.

=== numData ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.numData(t, compress)
</syntaxhighlight>

Given a table with keys like <code>"foo1"</code>, <code>"bar1"</code>, <code>"foo2"</code>, and <code>"baz2"</code>, returns a table of subtables in the format <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{ [1] = {foo = 'text', bar = 'text'}, [2] = {foo = 'text', baz = 'text'} }</syntaxhighlight>.
Keys that don't end with an integer are stored in a subtable named <code>"other"</code>.
The compress option compresses the table so that it can be iterated over with <code>ipairs</code>.

=== compressSparseArray ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.compressSparseArray(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Takes an array <code>''t''</code> with one or more nil values, and removes the nil values while preserving the order, so that the array can be safely traversed with <code>ipairs</code>.
Any keys that are not positive integers are removed.
For example, for the table <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{1, nil, foo = 'bar', 3, 2}</syntaxhighlight>, <code>compressSparseArray</code> will return <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{1, 3, 2}</syntaxhighlight>.

=== sparseIpairs ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.sparseIpairs(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

This is an iterator function for traversing a sparse array <code>''t''</code>.
It is similar to <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#ipairs|ipairs]]</code>, but will continue to iterate until the highest numerical key, whereas <code>ipairs</code> may stop after the first <code>nil</code> value.
Any keys that are not positive integers are ignored.

Usually <code>sparseIpairs</code> is used in a generic <code>for</code> loop.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
for i, v in TableTools.sparseIpairs(t) do
   -- code block
end
</syntaxhighlight>

Note that <code>sparseIpairs</code> uses the <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#pairs|pairs]]</code> function in its implementation.
Although some table keys appear to be ignored, all table keys are accessed when it is run.

=== size ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.size(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Finds the size of a key/value pair table.
For example, for the table <syntaxhighlight lang="lua">{foo = 'foo', bar = 'bar'}</syntaxhighlight>, <code>size</code> will return <code>2</code>.
The function will also work on arrays, but for arrays it is more efficient to use the <code>#</code> operator.
Note that to find the table size, this function uses the <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#pairs|pairs]]</code> function to iterate through all of the table keys.

=== keysToList ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.keysToList(t, keySort)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns a list of the keys in a table, sorted using either a default comparison function or a custom <code>keySort</code> function, which  follows the same rules as the <code>comp</code> function supplied to <code>{{ll|Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#table.sort|table.sort}}</code>.

=== sortedPairs ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.sortedPairs(t, keySort)
</syntaxhighlight>

Iterates through a table, with the keys sorted using the <code>keysToList</code> function.
If there are only numerical keys, <code>sparseIpairs</code> is probably more efficient.

=== isArray ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.isArray(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns true if all keys in the table are consecutive integers starting at <code>1</code>.

=== listToSet ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.listToSet(arr)
</syntaxhighlight>

Creates a set from the array part of the table <code>arr</code>.
Indexing the set by any of the values in <code>arr</code> returns <code>true</code>.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local set = TableTools.listToSet { "a", "b", "c" }
assert(set["a"] === true)
</syntaxhighlight>

=== invert ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.invert(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Transposes the keys and values in an array.
For example, <code>invert{ "a", "b", "c" }</code> yields <code>{ a = 1, b = 2, c = 3 }</code>.

=== deepCopy ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.deepCopy(orig, noMetatable, alreadySeen)
</syntaxhighlight>

Creates a copy of the table <code>orig</code>.
As with <code>mw.clone</code>, all values that are not functions are duplicated and the identity of tables is preserved.
If <code>noMetatable</code> is <code>true</code>, then the metatable (if any) is not copied.
Can copy tables loaded with <code>mw.loadData</code>.

Similar to <code>mw.clone</code>, but <code>mw.clone</code> cannot copy tables loaded with <code>mw.loadData</code> and does not allow metatables <em>not</em> to be copied.

=== sparseConcat ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.sparseConcat(t, sep)
</syntaxhighlight>

Concatenates all values in the table that are indexed by a positive integer, in order.

=== length ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.length(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns the length of a table, or the first integer key <code>n</code> counting from <code>0</code> such that <code>t[n + 1]</code> is <code>nil</code>.
It is similar to the operator <code>#</code>, but may return a different value when there are gaps in the array portion of the table.
Intended to be used on data loaded with <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#mw.loadData|mw.loadData]]</code> and on <code>[[mw:Special:MyLanguage/Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#frame.args|frame.args]]</code>.
Both use a metatable such that <code>#mw.loadData("module:...")</code> and <code>#frame.args</code> don't work correctly.
For other tables, use <code>#</code>.

=== inArray ===

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.inArray(arr, valueToFind)
</syntaxhighlight>

Returns <syntaxhighlight lang="lua" inline>true</syntaxhighlight> if <code>valueToFind</code> is a member of the array <code>arr</code>, and <syntaxhighlight lang="lua" inline>false</syntaxhighlight> otherwise.
<includeonly>{{Sandbox other||
[[Category:Lua metamodules|TableTools]]
}}</includeonly>