How can I check if a lua table contains only sequential numeric indices?

Question

How can I write a function that determines whether it\'s table argument is a true array?

isArray({1, 2, 4, 8, 16}) -> true
isArray({1, \"two\", 3, 4, 5}) ->         


        

Answer 1

I wrote this code for another similar question lately:

---Checks if a table is used as an array. That is: the keys start with one and are sequential numbers
-- @param t table
-- @return nil,error string if t is not a table
-- @return true/false if t is an array/isn't an array
-- NOTE: it returns true for an empty table
function isArray(t)
    if type(t)~="table" then return nil,"Argument is not a table! It is: "..type(t) end
    --check if all the table keys are numerical and count their number
    local count=0
    for k,v in pairs(t) do
        if type(k)~="number" then return false else count=count+1 end
    end
    --all keys are numerical. now let's see if they are sequential and start with 1
    for i=1,count do
        --Hint: the VALUE might be "nil", in that case "not t[i]" isn't enough, that's why we check the type
        if not t[i] and type(t[i])~="nil" then return false end
    end
    return true
end