gvx / _L_U

Adds _L and _U tables, for modifying and accessing local variables and upvalues in Lua

_L_U - Access Upvalues and Local Variables via String Names

_L_U is a Lua library that implements _L and _U tables, for accessing and modifying local variables and upvalues.

Snippet from example file (explaining the _L table):

-- The variable must be declared using the 'local' keyword first.
-- Then we can modify and access it using the _L table.
local local_variable

-- Let's set it to "Hello World", then print it
_L["local_variable"] = "Hello World"
print(_L["local_variable"])

-- If you wanted to make all local variables globals, then you
-- would use this code:
-- for k, v in pairs(_L) do _G[k] = v end

Upvalues are local variables from outer scopes that are accessed or modified within the current function.

Snippet from example file (explaining the _U table):

function scope_1()
	-- Declare a local variable in scope_1
	local scoped_variable = 2
	
	-- Inside scope_1, we have a function called
	-- scope_2
	function scope_2()
		-- Use scoped_variable within scope_2 in any way
		-- If we don't use it then we cannot access it
		-- with _U (we will get nil instead)
		-- I recommend just setting the variable to itself
		-- as a way of declaring it as an upvalue
		scoped_variable = scoped_variable
		
		-- We can now access "scoped_variable" using _U
		-- Let's try printing it
		print(_U["scoped_variable"])
		
		-- We can also access "local_variable" from love.load
		local_variable = local_variable
		print(_U["local_variable"])
		
		-- upvalues can be transformed into globals too
		-- for k, v in pairs(_U) do _G[k] = v end
	end
	
	-- Call scope_2
	scope_2()
end

-- Call scope_1
scope_1()

_L_U is licensed under the Boost Software License, version 1.0

Note: _L_U makes use of the debug library, and thus will not work if it is disabled.