Lesson 3: tables

Tables are a lot like variables except they store more information in them. In this lesson we will make a text that will appear at a location stored in a table and will display info stored in a table.

To make a table all that you need to do is type

myTable = {}

Ok so now let me show you an example

fruits = {}
fruits[1] = "apple"
fruits[2] = "cherry"
fruits[3] = "banana"

This is easy right? Ok so lets make are program
lets make are colors, tables and start are loop.

blue = Color.new(0,0,255)
position = {}
position[1] = (x = 100, y = 200)
text = {}
text[1] = "this is in a table!!"
while true do

Ok so we created a table, position, that has the x and y position stored in it and we created a table, text, that has some text stored in it.

so lets move on to the loop.

screen:print(position[1].x,position[1].y,text[1],blue)
screen.flip()
screen.waitVblankStart()
end

So you may notice we put position[1].x and one for y. You may wonder what this is. this means that from the table position[1] get the data for X.

OK! so save as Table.lua and try out. you now know how to make a table! please continue on to the next lesson!

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