Setmetatable

setmetatable( tbl, metatbl )

Updates the metatable for a table.

tbl

The table whose metatable to modify.

metatbl

The new metatable.

return-value

The same tbl that was passed in.

In Lua, tables are general purpose objects that contain values and can be manipulated with operators. The default behaviors of operators on a table value are stored in its metatable, using keys such as __index that refer to functions that perform the operator's task.

The setmetatable() function updates the metatable for a table, allowing you to customize the built-in operations. This has several useful applications for creating custom value types in Lua. For example, you can:

• Define a vector data type that supports arithmetic operators for addition and subtraction
• Set comparison operators on a new value type to use it with a generic sorting routine, such as sorting displayable objects by their display depth
• Implement inheritance: construct objects (tables) that refer to another table as a prototype (or class) by setting the __index operator to access the prototype's properties

PICO-8 supports overwriting the __tostring metamethod. Tables can now be concatenated with strings, or printed directly.

PICO-8 includes Lua's rawget(), rawset(), rawlen(), and rawequal() functions, which ignore custom __index, __newindex, __len, and __eq metamethods, respectively.

Note: The return value is just the input, tbl, given back to you, which can be convenient in pseudo-constructors. See pixel:new() in the example below for a demonstration.

Metamethods

A summary of the lua metamethods, as they pertain to pico-8.

__index	function(table, key) Can also be a table.	Used when reading a non-existing key from the table. Can be bypassed via rawget()
__newindex	function(table, key, value) Can also be a table.	Used when writing a non-existing key to the table. Can be bypassed via rawset()
__len	function(table)	Called when getting the length of the table (via #). Can be bypassed via rawlen()
__eq	function(table1, table2)	Called when comparing two distinct tables via == or !=, but only if both have the same __eq metamethod. Can be bypassed via rawequal()
__lt	function(value1, value2)	Called when comparing the table via < or >. Also called when comparing via <= or >=, if __le isn't defined.
__le	function(value1, value2)	Called when comparing the table via <= or >=.
__add __sub __mul __div __idiv __mod __pow __and __or __xor __shl __shr __lshr __rotl __rotr __concat	function(value1, value2)	Called when performing binary operations on the table. (Respectively: +, -, *, /, \, %, ^, &, |, ^^, <<, >>, >>>, <<>, >><, ..)
__unm __not __peek __peek2 __peek4	function(table)	Called when performing unary operations on the table. (Respectively: -, ~, @, %, $)
__call	function(table, ...)	Called when calling the table as if it were a function.
__tostring	function(table)	Called when calling tostr(), print() and printh() on the table.
__pairs	function(table)	Called when calling pairs() on the table. Can be bypassed by using next() directly.
__ipairs	function(table)	Called when calling ipairs() on the table. Can be bypassed by using inext() directly.
__metatable	any value	Returned instead of the real metatable when calling getmetatable(). Also, its presence causes setmetatable() to fail with an error.
__gc	-	Appears to not be implemented in PICO-8.
__mode	"k"/"v"/"kv"	Specifies the table has weak keys/values. (See lua reference manual for more details)

Examples

-- default attribute values for a "pixel" class
pixel = {
  x = 0,
  y = 0,
  c = 7
}
pixel.__index=pixel

-- the pixel class constructor
function pixel:new(o)
  return setmetatable(o or {}, self)
end

-- using the pixel class
p1 = pixel:new()
print(p1.x)   -- 0
print(p1.y)   -- 0
print(p1.c)   -- 7

-- use an instance of pixel to subclass it
-- (prototypical inheritance)
newpixel = pixel:new({y=100})

p2 = newpixel:new()
print(p2.x)   -- 0
print(p2.y)   -- 100

External samples & references

The Lua documentation on metatables includes an example of implementing a set container type, using metamethods to implement set unions and intersections with the + and * operators.

The Lua documentation on objects demonstrates how to use the __index metamethod to implement inheritance.

On the PICO-8 forums, user geckojsc posted a metatable tutorial demonstrating adding and subtracting vector values.

See also

• getmetatable()
• rawset()
• rawget()
• rawlen()
• rawequal()
• Metatables
• Tables
• Lua