The command "for [xxx] in pairs, do"

[Jones 36]

what does in pairs mean?

 

for [xxx] in pairs, do

[Billy 164]

essentially, lua tables save the index and the value.

 

eg array["index"] = value

 

Item[27] = 855

Item["new"] = "hello"

 

eg

for i,v in pairs(Item) do

print(i.." "..v)

end

 

Would output

 

27 855

new hello

[MonkeyCode 453]

for is one of three traditional loops (for, do, while)
why use pairs instead of numeric loop (for i = 0, 5 do {...})?
Arrays in LUA are tables that are dynamic in terms of data structures. (lists, dictionary, arrays, etc.)
Example: t[1] = 5; t['one'] = 5; -- in C, t['one'] is not a valid usage of arrays.
we start using keyword 'pairs' when the indexes are not numerical and want to iterate through a table.

Edited April 15, 2016 by xtc

[Jones 36]

@xtc @7n6

 

Very helpful. Thanks for the information!