Arrays

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Published Oct 28, 2023Updated May 15, 2024
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Arrays are a type of container for storing data in ordered collections. Luau, a lightweight and efficient scripting language, implements arrays using a single structure known as a table.

Arrays are versatile data structures capable of storing various data types, and values can be retrieved or modified using the conventional indexing syntax []. To clear an array, the elements are set to nil.

Syntax

Luau allows for the creation of arrays using curly braces {}. Unlike some programming languages that start array indexing from 0, in Luau, by default, the first element in an array is designated as index 1. However, Luau provides the flexibility to create arrays with custom indices as needed.

a = {5}; -- An array with single element
print(a[1]) -- This will return 5
print(a[2]) -- This will return nil because the index is out of range

The array created above contains one element only with the value 5, it can be accessed by passing the index value 1. However, if a value is passed out of the range of the array, the code will return nil. This is because nil refers to missing data.

Accessing Elements

To access an array element, the desired value is called by its index. For example, to reference a value from the following array:

a = {
[1] = "a",
[2] = "b",
[3] = "c"
}

In this array, elements are indexed from 1 to 3. To print b, reference it by its assigned index, which is 2.

This indexing method works for all elements in an array. This also works with dictionaries, but instead the assigned key must be used to retrieve a value. A key is essentially an index with the only difference being that a key may be assigned as any type, while an index must be a number.

For example:

dictionary = {
["A"] = "Apple",
["B"] = "Banana",
["C"] = "Cat"
}
print(dictionary["C"]) -- "Cat"

It’s important to note that in Lua (and Luau), when accessing a dictionary or array using an index or key, Luau returns the associated value, not the index or key itself.

Replacing Elements

Values can be reassigned in Luau arrays by specifying the index and providing a new value, as shown below:

a[2] = "c" -- Now the object at index is 2 is c instead of b

To remove an element, simply reassign the index to nil.

a[2] = 'nil'

Getting the Length of an Array

Frequently, it’s necessary to determine the length or size of an array. In Luau, use the # symbol before an array to retrieve its length.

Note: This syntax returns the last index of the array, which may not always be equivalent to the actual size of the array.

names = {"Alice", "Bob", "Charlie", "David"} -- Let's consider an array of names
local size = #names -- We can use the '#' symbol to determine the size of the 'names' array
for i = 1, size do
print(names[i]) -- Access and print each element of the array
end

Adding and Removing Elements

Elements can be added to the end of an array using the table.insert() function:

table.insert(a, 6) -- Adds the value 6 to the end of array 'a'

To remove an element from an array, use the table.remove() function:

table.remove(a, 3) -- Removes the element at index 3 from array 'a'

Multi-Dimensional Arrays

Luau supports multi-dimensional arrays, which are arrays of arrays. They can be created like this:

matrix = {{1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6}, {7, 8, 9}}

Accessing elements in a multi-dimensional array requires using multiple sets of square brackets:

value = matrix[2][3] -- Accesses the element at row 2, column 3 of the matrix

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