Lua Metatables Using tables as metamethods
Example
Some metamethods don't have to be functions. To most important example for this is the __index metamethod. It can also be a table, which is then used as lookup. This is quite commonly used in the creation of classes in lua. Here, a table (often the metatable itself) is used to hold all the operations (methods) of the class:
local meta = {}
-- set the __index method to the metatable.
-- Note that this can't be done in the constructor!
meta.__index = meta
function create_new(name)
local self = { name = name }
setmetatable(self, meta)
return self
end
-- define a print function, which is stored in the metatable
function meta.print(self)
print(self.name)
end
local obj = create_new("Hello from object")
obj:print()
