What value does the code below print?
local result = (true and nil or "Huh?") print("result:", result)
result: Huh?
Why? Haha…
The expression evaluates as:
true and nil == false
And then:
"Huh?" == true
In Lua, the expression is equivalent to:
if (true == true and nil == true) then return true elseif ("Huh?" == true) then return "Huh?" end
The reason is that any value which is non-false and non-nil will be true. Any expression which has ‘and’ and ‘or’ will evaluate the ‘and’ portion and then the ‘or’ portion, taking the result of the ‘and’ portion as an input. (Which is why the ‘if’ block above separates them.
You are asking for a return value from the expression and Lua will return the successful portion of your expression as a value. This means that because the “Huh?” is not evaluated as ‘false’ (but the ‘and’ portion of the expression evaluates as ‘false’) you will receive the value of the ‘true’ portion of the expression.
In short: Lua returned the portion of the expression which is ‘true’. In your case, “Huh?” is not nil and not 0, so it is returned.
From lua.org
Conditionals (such as the ones in control structures) consider false and nil as false and anything else as true. Beware that, unlike some other scripting languages, Lua considers both zero and the empty string as true in conditional tests.
Oh, I guessed incorrectly.
I thought ‘and, or’ condition is ‘if, else’.
local result if true then result = nil else result = "Huh?" end print("result:", result)
I learned a new thing. Thank you very much! 
The expression evaluates as:
true and nil == false
And then:
"Huh?" == true
In Lua, the expression is equivalent to:
if (true == true and nil == true) then return true elseif ("Huh?" == true) then return "Huh?" end
The reason is that any value which is non-false and non-nil will be true. Any expression which has ‘and’ and ‘or’ will evaluate the ‘and’ portion and then the ‘or’ portion, taking the result of the ‘and’ portion as an input. (Which is why the ‘if’ block above separates them.
You are asking for a return value from the expression and Lua will return the successful portion of your expression as a value. This means that because the “Huh?” is not evaluated as ‘false’ (but the ‘and’ portion of the expression evaluates as ‘false’) you will receive the value of the ‘true’ portion of the expression.
In short: Lua returned the portion of the expression which is ‘true’. In your case, “Huh?” is not nil and not 0, so it is returned.
From lua.org
Conditionals (such as the ones in control structures) consider false and nil as false and anything else as true. Beware that, unlike some other scripting languages, Lua considers both zero and the empty string as true in conditional tests.
Oh, I guessed incorrectly.
I thought ‘and, or’ condition is ‘if, else’.
local result if true then result = nil else result = "Huh?" end print("result:", result)
I learned a new thing. Thank you very much!