Serialize nonrecursive data structure

Summary

A function that produces lua code from a data structure.
When executed, the code returns a copy of the data structure.

The function is quite useful for quick application development, since one does not need to write "save" and "load" code.
Since it uses the lua interpreter itself for parsing the results, it loads even large datasets quickly.
It is also very useful for debugging, since the serialized data structure can be dumped to screen or file.

Example

dumpStructure=require('dumpStructure')
t={"one", "two", "three", {"four"}, t1={1, 2, 3}}
print(dumpStructure(t))

returns

{"one","two","three",{"four"},["t1"]={1,2,3}}

Download

here

Code

-- ##########################################################################
-- # dump() function for lua
-- # Markus Nentwig 2007
-- # This code is in the public domain and provided without any warranty.
-- #
-- # Serializes a table tree structure (non-recursive)
-- # executing "return "..dump(struct) reconstructs the structure.
-- ##########################################################################
local dump
dump=
   function(a)      
      local t=type(a)
      if t=="nil" then 
	 return "nil"
      elseif t=="number" then
	 return tostring(a)
      elseif t=="string" then
	 return string.format("%q", a)
      elseif t=="table" then
	 local res={}
	 -- do itable part
	 local done={}
	 for key, val in ipairs(a) do
	    table.insert(res, dump(val))
	    done[key]=true
	 end
	 for key, val in pairs(a) do
	    if not done[key] then
	       table.insert(res, "["..dump(key).."]="..dump(val))
	    end
	 end
	 return "{"..table.concat(res, ",").."}"
      else
	 error("invalid type "..(t or "?"))
      end
   end
return dump

© Markus Nentwig 2007-2008
The content of this page is provided without any warranty and may not be reproduced without permission.

Comments? Questions?

Please send me a mail! mnentwig@elisanet.fi