- Lua Tutorial
- Lua - Home
- Lua Basics
- Lua - Overview
- Lua - Environment
- Lua - Basic Syntax
- Lua - Comments
- Lua - Print Hello World
- Lua - Variables
- Lua - Data Types
- Lua - Operators
- Lua - Loops
- Lua - Generic For
- Lua - Decision Making
- Lua - Date and Time
- Lua Functions
- Lua - Functions
- Lua - Multiple Results
- Lua - Named Arguments
- Lua - Default/Optional Arguments
- Lua - Closures
- Lua - Uses of Closures
- Lua - Local Functions
- Lua - Anonymous Functions
- Lua - Functions in Table
- Lua - Proper Tail Calls
- Lua Strings
- Lua - Strings
- Lua - String Concatenation
- Lua - Loop Through String
- Lua - String to Int
- Lua - Split String
- Lua - Check String is NULL
- Lua Arrays
- Lua - Arrays
- Lua - Multi-dimensional Arrays
- Lua - Array Length
- Lua - Iterating Over Arrays
- Lua - Slicing Arrays
- Lua - Sorting Arrays
- Lua - Merging Arrays
- Lua - Sparse Arrays
- Lua - Searching Arrays
- Lua - Resizing Arrays
- Lua - Array to String Conversion
- Lua - Array as Stack
- Lua - Array as Queue
- Lua - Array with Metatables
- Lua - Immutable Arrays
- Lua - Shuffling Arrays
- Lua Iterators
- Lua - Iterators
- Lua - Stateless Iterators
- Lua - Stateful Iterators
- Lua - Built-in Iterators
- Lua - Custom Iterators
- Lua - Iterator Closures
- Lua - Infinite Iterators
- Lua - File Iterators
- Lua - Table Iterators
- Lua - Numeric Iterators
- Lua - Reverse Iterators
- Lua - Filter Iterators
- Lua - Range Iterators
- Lua - Chaining Iterators
- Lua Tables
- Lua - Tables
- Lua - Tables as Arrays
- Lua - Tables as Dictionaries
- Lua - Tables as Sets
- Lua - Table Length
- Lua - Table Iteration
- Lua - Table Constructors
- Lua - Loop through Table
- Lua - Merge Tables
- Lua - Nested Tables
- Lua - Accessing Table Fields
- Lua - Copy Table by Value
- Lua - Get Entries from Table
- Lua - Table Metatables
- Lua - Tables as Objects
- Lua - Table Inheritance
- Lua - Table Cloning
- Lua - Table Sorting
- Lua - Table Searching
- Lua - Table Serialization
- Lua - Weak Tables
- Lua - Table Memory Management
- Lua - Tables as Stacks
- Lua - Tables as Queues
- Lua - Sparse Tables
- Lua Lists
- Lua - Lists
- Lua - Inserting Elements into Lists
- Lua - Removing Elements from Lists
- Lua - Iterating Over Lists
- Lua - Reverse Iterating Over Lists
- Lua - Accessing List Elements
- Lua - Modifying List Elements
- Lua - List Length
- Lua - Concatenate Lists
- Lua - Slicing Lists
- Lua - Sorting Lists
- Lua - Reversing Lists
- Lua - Searching in Lists
- Lua - Shuffling List
- Lua - Multi-dimensional Lists
- Lua - Sparse Lists
- Lua - Lists as Stacks
- Lua - Lists as Queues
- Lua - Functional Operations on Lists
- Lua - Immutable Lists
- Lua - List Serialization
- Lua - Metatables with Lists
- Lua Modules
- Lua - Modules
- Lua - Returning Functions from Modules
- Lua - Returning Functions Table from Modules
- Lua - Module Scope
- Lua - SubModule
- Lua - Module Caching
- Lua - Custom Module Loaders
- Lua - Namespaces
- Lua - Singleton Modules
- Lua - Sharing State Between Modules
- Lua - Module Versioning
- Lua Metatables
- Lua - Metatables
- Lua - Chaining Metatables
- Lua Coroutines
- Lua - Coroutines
- Lua File Handling
- Lua - File I/O
- Lua - Opening Files
- Lua - Modes for File Access
- Lua - Reading Files
- Lua - Writing Files
- Lua - Closing Files
- Lua - Renaming Files
- Lua - Deleting Files
- Lua - File Buffers and Flushing
- Lua - Reading Files Line by Line
- Lua - Binary File Handling
- Lua - File Positioning
- Lua - Appending to Files
- Lua - Error Handling in File Operations
- Lua - Checking if File exists
- Lua - Checking if File is Readable
- Lua - Checking if File is Writable
- Lua - Checking if File is ReadOnly
- Lua - File Descriptors
- Lua - Creating Temporary Files
- Lua - Working with Large Files
- Lua Advanced
- Lua - Error Handling
- Lua - Debugging
- Lua - Garbage Collection
- Lua - Object Oriented
- Lua - Web Programming
- Lua - Database Access
- Lua - Game Programing
- Lua Useful Resources
- Lua - Quick Guide
- Lua - Useful Resources
- Lua - Discussion
Lua - Environment
Local Environment Setup
If you are still willing to set up your environment for Lua programming language, you need the following softwares available on your computer - (a) Text Editor, (b) The Lua Interpreter, and (c) Lua Compiler.
Text Editor
You need a text editor to type your program. Examples of a few editors include Windows Notepad, OS Edit command, Brief, Epsilon, EMACS, and vim or vi.
Name and version of the text editor can vary on different operating systems. For example, Notepad will be used on Windows, and vim or vi can be used on Windows as well as Linux or UNIX.
The files you create with your editor are called source files and these files contain the program source code. The source files for Lua programs are typically named with the extension ".lua".
The Lua Interpreter
It is just a small program that enables you to type Lua commands and have them executed immediately. It stops the execution of a Lua file in case it encounters an error unlike a compiler that executes fully.
The Lua Compiler
When we extend Lua to other languages/applications, we need a Software Development Kit with a compiler that is compatible with the Lua Application Program Interface.
Installation on Windows
There is a separate IDE named "SciTE" developed for the windows environment, which can be downloaded from https://github.com/rjpcomputing/luaforwindows/releases GitHub Releases Section.
Run the downloaded executable to install the Lua IDE.
Since itâs an IDE, you can both create and build the Lua code using the same.
In case, you are interested in installing Lua in command line mode, you need to install MinGW or Cygwin and then compile and install Lua in windows.
Installation on Linux
To download and build Lua, use the following command −
$ wget http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.4.7.tar.gz $ tar zxf lua-5.4.7.tar.gz $ cd lua-5.4.7 $ make linux test
In order to install on other platforms like aix, ansi, bsd, generic linux, mingw, posix, solaris by replacing Linux in make Linux, test with the corresponding platform name.
We have a helloWorld.lua, in Lua as follows −
helloWorld.lua
print("Hello World!")
Now, we can build and run a Lua file say helloWorld.lua, by switching to the folder containing the file using cd, and then using the following command −
$ lua helloWorld
We can see the following output−
Hello World!
Installation on Mac OS X
To build/test Lua in the Mac OS X, use the following command −
$ curl -R -O http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.4.7.tar.gz $ tar zxf lua-5.4.7.tar.gz $ cd lua-5.4.7 $ make macosx test
In certain cases, you may not have installed the Xcode and command line tools. In such cases, you wonât be able to use the make command. Install Xcode from mac app store. Then go to Preferences of Xcode, and then switch to Downloads and install the component named "Command Line Tools". Once the process is completed, make command will be available to you.
It is not mandatory for you to execute the "make macosx test" statement. Even without executing this command, you can still use Lua in Mac OS X.
We have a helloWorld.lua, in Lua, as follows −
helloWorld.lua
print("Hello World!")
Now, we can build and run a Lua file say helloWorld.lua by switching to the folder containing the file using cd and then using the following command −
$ lua helloWorld
We can see the following output −
Hello World!
Lua IDE
As mentioned earlier, for Windows SciTE, Lua IDE is the default IDE provided by the Lua creator team. The alternate IDE available is from ZeroBrane Studio, which is available across multiple platforms like Windows, Mac and Linux.
There are also plugins for eclipse that enable the Lua development. Using IDE makes it easier for development with features like code completion and is highly recommended. The IDE also provides interactive mode programming similar to the command line version of Lua.
Running Lua Program in SciTE
Create a new File as main.lua and put the following code.
main.lua
-- print Hello World to the console.
print("Hello World!")
Click on the "Run Program" icon in tool bar or Select Tools > Go option to run the lua program.
>lua -e "io.stdout:setvbuf 'no'" "main.lua" Hello World! >Exit code: 0