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Iterate a table of tables using the Lua C API

I am trying to iterate over a table of tables in Lua and output:

  • The key of each table.
  • A key / value pair of each record in each table.

Here is the code:

void print_table(lua_State *L)
{
    lua_pushnil(L);
    while(lua_next(L, -2) != 0) {
    const char *key = lua_tostring(L, -2);
            if(lua_isstring(L, -1))
                printf("%s = %s", key, lua_tostring(L, -1));
            else if(lua_isnumber(L, -1))
                printf("%s = %d", key, lua_tonumber(L, -1));
            else if(lua_istable(L, -1)) {
                printf("%s", key);
                PrintTable(L);
            }
            lua_pop(L, 1);
        }
    }
}

And here is an example of one of the table I'm trying to print:

s = {
        p = {
            n = "D",
            g = "1",
        },
        d = {
            l = "N",
            p = "N",
            u = "O",
            po = 100,
        },
        e = {
            {
                n = "B",
                l = "P",
                p = "P",
                u = "P",
                po = "P",
                pa = {
                    v = "4",
                    a = "U",
                    f = {
                        { name = "U", type = "U" },
                        { name = "A", type = "I" },
                        { name = "A", type = "I" },
                        { name = "P", type = "U" },
                        { name = "P", type = "U" },
                        { name = "P", type = "I" },
                        { name = "T", type = "U" },
                        { name = "D", type = "U" },
                        { name = "D", type = "I" },
                        { name = "S", type = "I" },
                        { name = "C", type = "U" },
                        { name = "G", type = "U" },
                        { name = "C", type = "F" },
                        { name = "C", type = "U" },
                    },
                },
                c = {
                    v = "1",
                    a = "",
                    f = {
                        { name = "B", type = "U" },
                        { name = "E", type = "F" },
                    },
                },
            },
        },
    }

Function crash on line:

while(lua_next(L, -2) != 0)

due to invalid index. The script line that causes the crash:

{ name = "B", type = "U" },

I have to admit that I am not very familiar with the stack in Lua, I tried to find similar answers and could not find. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thank!

A working version has been added in case someone is interested:

void print_table(lua_State *L)
    {
        if ((lua_type(L, -2) == LUA_TSTRING))
            printf("%s", lua_tostring(L, -2));

        lua_pushnil(L);
        while(lua_next(L, -2) != 0) {
            if(lua_isstring(L, -1))
                printf("%s = %s", lua_tostring(L, -2), lua_tostring(L, -1));
            else if(lua_isnumber(L, -1))
                printf("%s = %d", lua_tostring(L, -2), lua_tonumber(L, -1));
            else if(lua_istable(L, -1)) {
                print_table(L);
            }
            lua_pop(L, 1);
        }
    }
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1 answer
f = {
    { name = "B", type = "U" },
    { name = "E", type = "F" },
}

It is equivalent to:

f = {
    [1] = { name = "B", type = "U" },
    [2] = { name = "E", type = "F" },
}

lua_tostring , Lua .

const char *key = lua_tostring(L, -2);

lua_tostring lua_tolstring manual:

, lua_tolstring . ( lua_next, lua_tolstring .)

lua_type, , , lua_isstring , . lua_tostring .

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