tables

[yssaril]

am working on a database mod and instead of assigning things to tables like so:

table1[1] = "something1"
table1[2] = "something2"
table1[3] = "something3"
table1[4] = "something4"

i want to assign it like this:

table1["string1"] = "something1"
table1["string2"] = "something2"
table1["string3"] = "something3"
table1["string4"] = "something4"

now the creation of the table is the easy part but what i was wondering is there anyway for me to get back a list of the strings that where used without keeping track of the list myself?

say with a function like this:

returntableplace(table1)

this would then return {"string1","string2","string3","string4"}

[Layrajha]

for key, value in pairs(table) do
  DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("The key " .. key .. " is associated with the value " .. value .. ".")
  -- I am too lazy to check if the key and the value's type are ok to concatenate, but you get the idea
end

Edit:
The order in which the elements are returned is not specified. It can be different from the order in which the elements have been inserted, or different from the "<" order. If I remember well, there's a tutorial on wowace on how to add a sort function to your "pairs". If you need it, just google something like "site:wowace.com sortedpairs" and it should get you to the page you need.

Edit bis:
Nvm, it was on wowwiki: http://www.wowwiki.com/HOWTO:_Do_Tricks_With_Tables
It's also on wowace but in a more overall advanced tutorial: http://www.wowace.com/wiki/Coding_Ti..._keys_in_order

[yssaril]

sweet that worked perfectly