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LUA: lua_setglobal

Started by madmaurice Jan 9, 2008 at 7:25 AM 8 replies 6.1k views

Original Post

Jan 9, 2008 at 7:25 AM

i want to add a global variable with userdata in it. i made a struct:


struct somedata {
	int a;
	int b;
};

and i wanted to add it by calling:


somedata *tdata = (somedata*)lua_newuserdata(L,sizeof(somedata));
tdata->a = 10;
lua_setglobal(L,"somedata");

but when i call:


print(somedata.a)

in the script. nothing happens.

rip-off

Jan 9, 2008 at 7:38 AM

See here for an example of userdata. With some meta table hackery you could make it so that instead of the example (array.size(a)) you could use (a:size()). Then take the basic approach and make it work for what you are trying.

Lua will not allow you to do what you are trying, not without a bit more work anyway [smile]

madmaurice

Jan 9, 2008 at 7:44 AM

what did i do wrong?

like in the example:
- i called lua_newuserdata() with luastate and size of my struct.
- i set a property.
- i made it a global variable.

so what would i need to do?

rip-off

Jan 9, 2008 at 7:55 AM

You didn't expose the variable to Lua. Lua just takes a userdata and stores it, it doesn't know what it represents. All it known is its size. Lua cannot determine the names of the members of the struct - even if it wanted to. It is a good idea that it doesn't do this - it allows you to implement private variables.

However, the alternative is to not use a userdata at all and instead create a regular lua table. I'm haven't done this in C++ before so I'll leave you with this page, which hopefully describes what you need to know.

madmaurice

Jan 9, 2008 at 8:07 AM

and what about light user data?

rip-off

Jan 9, 2008 at 8:25 AM

Quote:
Original post by madmaurice
and what about light user data?

Almost the same as a regular userdata, except you only pass Lua a pointer.

If you explain what you are trying to do then maybe we could make a suggestion. You hardly are trying to expose a 2 integer struct called "somedata" to Lua!

What I do for my game is have an array (std::vector actually) of objects I want to expose to Lua. I provide an interface for getting and setting the values. I use simple functions to do this. Example:

struct Example{ int a,b; };std::vector<Example> examples;int create( lua_State *L ){    Example example;    data.b = lua_tointeger(L,-1); lua_pop(L,1);    data.a = lua_tointeger(L,-1); lua_pop(L,1);    examples.push_back(example);    // return index    lua_pushinteger(L,examples.size()-1);    return 1;}// and a similar function for bint setA( lua_State *L ){   int a = lua_tointeger(L,-1); lua_pop(L,1);   int index = lua_tointeger(L,-1); lua_pop(L,1);   if( index >= 0 && index < examples.size() )   {        examples[index].a = a;   }   else   {        // handle error   }   return 0;}int getA( lua_State *L ){   int index = lua_tointeger(L,-1); lua_pop(L,1);   if( index >= 0 && index < examples.size() )   {        lua_pushinteger(L,examples[index].a);        return 1;   }   else   {       // handle error   }   return 0;}

Then I write a lua script like so(assuming all the above functions are in a namespace/table "example"):

Example = {}function Example.new(a,b)   local e = {}   setmetatable(e,{__index=Example})   e.index = example.create(a,b)   return eendfunction Example.getA()   return example.getA(self.index)endfunction Example.setA(a)   example.setA(self.index,a)end

This may not be the best way, but it has advantages for me. Firstly, the data remains in a contiguous block in C++, so I can store objects by value in a vector, rather than messing around with pointers. Also, I prefer writing table manipulation code in lua. I could change the C++ functions to parse lua tables but I find that awkward to write.

Obviously I just wrote that example off the top of my head - it has neither been compiled nor tested. In addition, it lacks error handling.

madmaurice

Jan 9, 2008 at 8:30 AM

i don't want to create an instance i just want to read out a struct instance when it was giving as a parameter or as a global.

oh sry didn't checked your post.