Search for an item in a Lua list

Question

If I have a list of items like this:

local items = { \"apple\", \"orange\", \"pear\", \"banana\" }

how do I check if \"orange\" is in this

Answer 1

You could use something like a set from Programming in Lua:

function Set (list)
  local set = {}
  for _, l in ipairs(list) do set[l] = true end
  return set
end

Then you could put your list in the Set and test for membership:

local items = Set { "apple", "orange", "pear", "banana" }

if items["orange"] then
  -- do something
end

Or you could iterate over the list directly:

local items = { "apple", "orange", "pear", "banana" }

for _,v in pairs(items) do
  if v == "orange" then
    -- do something
    break
  end
end

Answer 2

You're seeing firsthand one of the cons of Lua having only one data structure---you have to roll your own. If you stick with Lua you will gradually accumulate a library of functions that manipulate tables in the way you like to do things. My library includes a list-to-set conversion and a higher-order list-searching function:

function table.set(t) -- set of list
  local u = { }
  for _, v in ipairs(t) do u[v] = true end
  return u
end

function table.find(f, l) -- find element v of l satisfying f(v)
  for _, v in ipairs(l) do
    if f(v) then
      return v
    end
  end
  return nil
end

Answer 3

Sort of solution using metatable...

local function preparetable(t)
 setmetatable(t,{__newindex=function(self,k,v) rawset(self,v,true) end})
end

local workingtable={}
preparetable(workingtable)
table.insert(workingtable,123)
table.insert(workingtable,456)

if workingtable[456] then
...
end

Answer 4

Write it however you want, but it's faster to iterate directly over the list, than to generate pairs() or ipairs()

#! /usr/bin/env lua

local items = { 'apple', 'orange', 'pear', 'banana' }

local function locate( table, value )
    for i = 1, #table do
        if table[i] == value then print( value ..' found' ) return true end
    end
    print( value ..' not found' ) return false
end

locate( items, 'orange' )
locate( items, 'car' )

orange found
car not found