Lua nested tables, table.insert function

Question

i started learning lua and now i'm trying to deal with nested tables.

Basically i want to create a kind of local "database" using json interaction with lua (i found out that was the best thing to store my values)...

what i supposed to do is to scan all members inside a chatgroup (i'm using an unofficial telegram api) and store some values inside a table. I was able to retrieve all datas needed, so here's the structure declared in main function:

local dbs = load_data("./data/database.json")

dbs[tostring(msg.to.id)] = {
        gr_name = {},
        timestamp = "",
        user = {               --user changes into user ids
            us_name = {},
            us_nickname = {},
            us_role = ""
        },
    }

where msg.to.id contains a valid number. This is what i tried to do:

dbs[tostring(id)]['users'][tostring(v.peer_id)]['us_nickname'] = v.username

this one works but this one:

dbs[tostring(id)]['users'][tostring(v.peer_id)] = table.insert(us_name,v.print_name)

(id is a correct number and matches with first field, same as all values passed like v.peer_id and v.print_name so those are not the problem)

gives error "table expected"... i'm pretty sure i have totally no idea of how to insert an element in such a table like mine.

Can anyone of you be so kind to help me? I hope to be clear enough explaining my issue.

Thanks in advance to everyone :)

It is not clear what you are trying to do. table.insert is for arrays, and you don't have one. Are you trying to create a table to add to users? — Doug Currie
– Doug Currie, Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 19:47
table.insert inserts a value into a table and doesn't return anything. — Etan Reisner
– Etan Reisner, Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 20:13
a single user can change names so i want to store the new value without overwrite it in field us_names... i thought the best way was to declare an array of us_names ad to use table.insert in that field to store without overwrting previous value — A7X
– A7X, Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 21:30

Doug Currie · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-15 22:57:20Z

1

To add new user name to an existing user you probably want to insert it into the sub-table like this:

table.insert(dbs[tostring(id)]['users'][tostring(v.peer_id)].us_name, v.print_name)

answered Mar 15, 2016 at 22:57

Doug Currie

41.4k1 gold badge103 silver badges121 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

A7X Over a year ago

yea solved thanks :) i found out that in fact table.insert does not need to be assigned like i did, using equals.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Lua nested tables, table.insert function

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related