Text macro (1 Viewer)

[Herly Quijano]

Hello, I'm new here and I starting to learn about Lua, something I wanna ask is a thing that is used in another programing language called text macro, that replicates a code with small difference any time, basically it works like this:

textmacro EXAMPLE("func1","X")
textmacro EXAMPLE("func2","Y")

runtextmacro EXAMPLE(FUNC_NAME,VAR_TYPE)

function $FUNC_NAME$(var)
    SetCoord$VAR_TYPE$(var)
end

endtextmacro

Is the same as:

function func1(var)
    SetCoordX(var)
end

function func2(var)
    SetCoordY(var)
end

Is there something similar in Lua or there is a way to replicate it, because I searched and I didn't find anything.

 

[stetre]

Hi. Lua does not have macros, but there are ways to write functions that in turn define other functions. For example:

local function def(name, var)
   load("function "..name..var.."(val) print('"..var.."', val) end")()
end

def("Set", "X") -- defines the SetX() function
def("Set", "Y") -- defines the SetY() function
SetX(123)
SetY(456)

 

[Herly Quijano]

Hi. Lua does not have macros, but there are ways to write functions that in turn define other functions. For example:

local function def(name, var)
   load("function "..name..var.."(val) print('"..var.."', val) end")()
end

def("Set", "X") -- defines the SetX() function
def("Set", "Y") -- defines the SetY() function
SetX(123)
SetY(456)

Oh I see thank you.

 

[Herly Quijano]

I see you used this ' why and how can I use it?

 

[stetre]

I see you used this ' why and how can I use it?

Lua has a few alternative ways to delimit literal strings, e.g. "hello", 'hello', [[hello]], [=[hello]=] are all valid ways to define a literal string containing the word hello (for more details, see Lua 5.3 Reference Manual ).

In the above example, I obtained a string containing valid Lua code by concatenating a few strings and the contents of the variables name and var. The character ' is part of the string, while the " are delimiters. Say for example that name="Set" and var="X", then the code

load("function "..name..var.."(val) print('"..var.."', val) end")()

would result in

load("function ".."Set".."X".."(val) print('".."X".."', val) end")()

and eventually in

load("function SetX(val) print('X', val) end")()

Note that I could as well have swapped the roles of the ' and the ", by writing:

load('function '..name..var..'(val) print('"..var.."', val) end')()

This would result in the following, which is equivalent:

load('function SetX(val) print("X", val) end')()

 

[Herly Quijano]

Ah, that is to denote one string within another.

 

[Herly Quijano]

Question how manipulable is this? I mean Can I create or edit external variables? and did everything must be in the same line? and can I do some more things than create a function?

 

[stetre]

Question how manipulable is this? I mean Can I create or edit external variables? and did everything must be in the same line? and can I do some more things than create a function?

It is actually pretty flexible and you can do almost everything. The key is to understand how the load function works. Not the easiest topic, but definitely worth studying if you want to leverage the power of Lua. It essentially gives you ways to execute code that you compose at runtime. Such code follows the very same rules that must be followed by the code you would write in an editor (this should implicitly answer your questions). The only difference is that you compose it at runtime, which allows you to do things like those we did in the example, e.g. define a function whose name is the concatenation of the values of two variables.

 

[Herly Quijano]

It is actually pretty flexible and you can do almost everything. The key is to understand how the load function works. Not the easiest topic, but definitely worth studying if you want to leverage the power of Lua. It essentially gives you ways to execute code that you compose at runtime. Such code follows the very same rules that must be followed by the code you would write in an editor (this should implicitly answer your questions). The only difference is that you compose it at runtime, which allows you to do things like those we did in the example, e.g. define a function whose name is the concatenation of the values of two variables.

Ok, where can I found information? Because when I searched I just found simple descriptions.

 

[stetre]

Ok, where can I found information? Because when I searched I just found simple descriptions.

The major sources of information about any Lua topic are the reference manual and the book Programming in Lua (see Lua: documentation ). Better if you can get the newest edition (4th) of the latter, otherwise you can find an older edition available for free on the Lua site, which should be good enough as a starting point. The load function is covered in the chapter Compilation, Execution, and Errors .

 

[Herly Quijano]

The major sources of information about any Lua topic are the reference manual and the book Programming in Lua (see Lua: documentation ). Better if you can get the newest edition (4th) of the latter, otherwise you can find an older edition available for free on the Lua site, which should be good enough as a starting point. The load function is covered in the chapter Compilation, Execution, and Errors .

Thank you

 

[dinsdale247]

Highly recommend PIL. Super easy to read and it gives you Lua super powers.

 

[Herly Quijano]

Highly recommend PIL. Super easy to read and it gives you Lua super powers.

What is that?

 

[dinsdale247]

Sorry. Programming In Lua = PIL. Great book by one of the Lua authors.