How to create nested Lua tables using the C API

Question

I want to create a table like

myTable = {
    [0] = { ["a"] = 4, ["b"] = 2 },
    [1] = { ["a"] = 13, ["b"] = 37 }
}

using the C API?

My current approach is

lua_createtable(L, 0, 2);
int c = lua_gettop(L);
lua_pushstring(L, "a");
lua_pushnumber(L, 4);
lua_settable(L, c);
lua_pushstring(L, "b");
lua_pushnumber(L, 2);
lua_settable(L, c);

to create the inner tables in a loop. Before, this loop, I use

lua_createtable(L, 2, 0);
int outertable = lua_gettop(L);

to create the outer table for 2 numeric slots.

But how can I save the inner tables to the outer table?

Answer 1

Here's a full and minimal program demonstrating how to nest tables. Basically what you are missing is the lua_setfield function.

#include <stdio.h>
#include "lua.h"
#include "lauxlib.h"
#include "lualib.h"

int main()
{
    int res;
    lua_State *L = lua_open();
    luaL_openlibs(L);

    lua_newtable(L); /* bottom table */

    lua_newtable(L); /* upper table */

    lua_pushinteger(L, 4);
    lua_setfield(L, -2, "four"); /* T[four] = 4 */
    lua_setfield(L, -2, "T");  /* name upper table field T of bottom table */
    lua_setglobal(L, "t"); /* set bottom table as global variable t */

    res = luaL_dostring(L, "print(t.T.four == 4)");
    if(res)
    {
        printf("Error: %s\n", lua_tostring(L, -1));
    }

    return 0;
}

The program will simply print true.

If you need numeric indices, then you continue using lua_settable:

#include <stdio.h>
#include "lua.h"
#include "lauxlib.h"
#include "lualib.h"

int main()
{
    int res;
    lua_State *L = lua_open();
    luaL_openlibs(L);

    lua_newtable(L); /* bottom table */

    lua_newtable(L); /* upper table */

    lua_pushinteger(L, 0);
    lua_pushinteger(L, 4);
    lua_settable(L, -3);  /* uppertable[0] = 4; pops 0 and 4 */
    lua_pushinteger(L, 0);
    lua_insert(L, -2); /* swap uppertable and 0 */
    lua_settable(L, -3); /* bottomtable[0] = uppertable */
    lua_setglobal(L, "t"); /* set bottom table as global variable t */

    res = luaL_dostring(L, "print(t[0][0] == 4)");
    if(res)
    {
        printf("Error: %s\n", lua_tostring(L, -1));
    }

    return 0;
}

Rather than using absolute indices of 0 like I did, you might want to use lua_objlen to generate the index.

Answer 2

For simple code like the one you gave, my lua2c works fine and generates the code below.

/* This C code was generated by lua2c from the Lua code below.

myTable = {
    [0] = { ["a"] = 4, ["b"] = 2 },
    [1] = { ["a"] = 13, ["b"] = 37 }
}
*/
static int MAIN(lua_State *L)
{
 lua_newtable(L);
 lua_pushnumber(L,0);
 lua_newtable(L);
 lua_pushliteral(L,"a");
 lua_pushnumber(L,4);
 lua_pushliteral(L,"b");
 lua_pushnumber(L,2);
 lua_settable(L,-5);
 lua_settable(L,-3);
 lua_pushnumber(L,1);
 lua_newtable(L);
 lua_pushliteral(L,"a");
 lua_pushnumber(L,13);
 lua_pushliteral(L,"b");
 lua_pushnumber(L,37);
 lua_settable(L,-5);
 lua_settable(L,-3);
 lua_settable(L,-5);
 lua_settable(L,-3);
 lua_setglobal(L,"myTable");
 return 0;
}