Wiley-World.of.Warcraft.Programming.A.Guide.and.Reference.for.Creating.WoW.Addons

CHAPTER4Working with TablesKeeping data in variables is handy when working on simple programs, butlarger projects require an easier way to store data. Consider a simple addressbook program that enables you to electronically store contact information.Using variables, that might look something like this:alice_name = “Alice Applebaum“alice_phone = “+1-212-555-1434“alice_address1 = “114 Auburn Street“alice_address2 = “Apt 14“alice_city = “Atlanta“alice_state = “GA“As you can see, using this method for more than a few simple entrieswould be unwieldy. Adding a new entry requires you to create a new variablename and enter each of the details in a new variable. Computers are all aboutautomating processes, so there has to be a better way to deal with this.Storing Data Using TablesYou may be familiar with tables or some analogous object from other programminglanguages (arrays, records, dictionaries,hashtables).InLua,tablesare objects that can be used to store other (usually related) values.To understand how to use tables, it’s important to grasp the concept of anassociative table; which is how tables in Lua are implemented. An associativetable is a collection of values that are each associated with a key. Code can thenrequest a given key from a table and receive the value that is paired with thatkey, if such a pair exists.53