ChatTypeInfo curiosity

[Kanegasi]

I have discovered an "obscured table".

If you access ChatTypeInfo using a key, such as /dump ChatTypeInfo.SYSTEM, the result is the information for that chat event as expected, such as RGB values. However, if you try to dump the whole table, it's as empty table.

How is this possible?

[Vrul]

By using setmetatable on ChatTypeInfo and setting the metatable's __index to a table or function. In this case it is a table.

It is the same reason you can iterate over pairs(CreateFrame("Frame")) and only see a key-value pair of [0] and userdata but still be able to access all of its methods such as Hide and Show.

[Kanegasi]

Ah, I see. Despite my ongoing knowledge of Lua, I still don't have a grasp on the meta stuff.