pass variable by refernce

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

Hi,
Silly question… how do you pass a variable by ref to a function in lua

ie

[code]
local a = 1

function test(a)

a = a + 1

end

test(a)

print(a)

[code]

I want ‘a’ to print 2… [import]uid: 67619 topic_id: 15690 reply_id: 315690[/import]

#2

primitives (ints, strings and booleans) are passed by value only, where as tables are passed by reference.

The reason that other languages used reference or value was in a way to return multiple values, Lua can anyways return multiple values, so if you had code like

[lua] local a = 2
local b = 3
local c = 4

function doubleit(a,b)
return a*2, b*2
end

a,b = doubleit(a,b)
a,c = doubleit(a,c)
b,c = doubleit(b,c)

print("a = ", a)
print("b = ", b)
print("c = ", c)[/lua]

You will get the values as 8,12 and 16 respectively

LUA requires you to think a bit differently, and it can be amazing!!

cheers,

?:slight_smile: [import]uid: 3826 topic_id: 15690 reply_id: 57909[/import]

#3

Thanks mate… I really appreciate the help [import]uid: 67619 topic_id: 15690 reply_id: 58287[/import]