$ lua
> -- create an empty table and add some elements
> t1 = {}
> t1[1] = "moustache"
> t1[2] = 3
> t1["brothers"] = true
> -- more commonly, create the table and define elements all at once
> t2 = {[1] = "groucho", [3] = "chico", [5] = "harpo"}
> t3 = {[t1[1]] = t2[1], accent = t2[3], horn = t2[5]}
> t4 = {}
> t4[t3] = "the marx brothers"
> t5 = {characters = t2, marks = t3}
> t6 = {["a night at the opera"] = "classic"}
> -- make a reference and a string
> i = t3
> s = "a night at the opera"
> -- indices can be any Lua value
> print(t1[1], t4[t3], t6[s])
moustache the marx brothers classic
> -- the phrase table.string is the same as table["string"]
> print(t3.horn, t3["horn"])
harpo harpo
>-- indices can also be "multi-dimensional"
> print (t5["marks"]["horn"], t5.marks.horn)
harpo harpo
> -- i points to the same table as t3
> = t4[i]
the marx brothers
> -- non-existent indices return nil values
> print(t1[2], t2[2], t5.films)
nil nil nil
> -- even a function can be a key
> t = {}
> function t.add(i,j)
>
> return(i+j)
>
> end
> print(t.add(1,2))
3
> print(t[’add’](1,2))
3
> -- and another variation of a function as a key
> t = {}
> function v(x)
>
> print(x)
>
> end
> t[v] = "The Big Store"
> for key,value in t do key(value) end
The Big Store

01 #include
02 #include
03 #include
04 #include
05
06 int main (void) {
07 char buff[256];
08 int error;
09 lua_State *L = lua_open(); /* opens Lua */
10 luaopen_base(L); /* opens the basic library */
11 luaopen_table(L); /* opens the table library */
12 luaopen_io(L); /* opens the I/O library */
13 luaopen_string(L); /* opens the string lib. */
14 luaopen_math(L); /* opens the math lib. */
15
16 while (fgets(buff, sizeof(buff), stdin) != NULL) {
17 error = luaL_loadbuffer(L, buff, strlen(buff), "line") ||
18 lua_pcall(L, 0, 0, 0);
19 if (error) {
20 fprintf(stderr, "%s", lua_tostring(L, -1));
21 lua_pop(L, 1); /* pop error message from the stack */
22 }
23 }
24
25 lua_close(L);
26 return 0;
27 }