"In Lua, function names are first class variables." Ok - so what does that mean?

At the most direct / simplest, it means that a function can be stored in a variable - so that you can write

function oik()
  print ("does the real work!")
  end

and then

action = oik
action()

to run the function via another variable ....

"So what?" you may ask.

It means that you can set up a series of functions ... and then a series of tables each containing the data about a particular (in my example) person, and within the table have a member variable that defines which particular function is run at a certain time.

By, in turn, storing those other tables into a table of people, it means you can then write a loop which processes data for each person, and which takes a slightly different action depending on which particular function (logic) you have referenced within each table object.

One you've got this set up ... the resultant code can be really elegant ... from a table called team as your team of people ...

quay,bollard = next(team, nil)
while quay do
  print (quay,bollard["name"],
    bollard["approach"](oik),
    bollard["age"],"\n")
  quay,bollard = next(team, quay)
  end

... and different logic will be run from the "approach" member depending on what approach you have defined for that particular member.

This is a powerful technique where you have a number of things (members) each of which may have slightly different logic applied to them - in fact (although I have avoided the words so far) it's an excellent application of Object Oriented principles. You have

• Each table within the master table being an object
• Code that varies depending on the object being handled (polymorphism)
• Common logic only being defined once, with extra added as necessary to specific objects (inheritance)
• The ability to add in extra types (classes) without having to rewrite the main logic in any way

Complete example at this page
(written 2008-08-07)

 U107 - Object Orientation - the Lua way
  [1692] Towards Object Oriented Programming in Lua - (2008-06-30)
  [1699] If you are learning Lua, here are some more examples - (2008-07-06)
  [1819] Calling base class constructors - (2008-10-03)
  [2318] For Lua Programmers AND for Town Planners - (2009-08-02)
  [2359] A fresh example - objects the Lua way - (2009-08-13)
  [2455] Lua examples - coroutines, error handling, objects, etc - (2009-10-15)
  [2701] Is Lua an Object Oriented language? - (2010-04-01)
  [2703] Lua Metatables - (2010-04-02)
  [2710] __index and __newindex in Lua - metatable methods - (2010-04-05)
  [3142] Private and Public - and things between - (2011-01-22)
  [3396] Tables as Objects in Lua - a gentle introduction to data driven programming - (2011-08-17)
  [3524] Metaclasses (Python) and Metatables (Lua) - (2011-11-17)
  [3683] Weak references in Lua - what are they, and why use them? - (2012-04-04)
  [3694] Special __ methods you can use in Lua metatables - (2012-04-12)
  [3727] Using Lua tables as objects - (2012-05-11)
  [3730] What is a metatable? How do I set one up? How do I use them? Lua - (2012-05-12)
  [4117] Is Lua an Object Oriented language? - (2013-06-15)
  [4248] Metatables, Metamethods, classes and objects in Lua - (2014-03-18)
  [4273] Dot or Colon separator between table name and member in Lua - what is the difference? - (2014-05-06)
  [4572] Tables with values and code in Lua - looks like an object? - (2015-11-05)
  [4573] Classic style OO code - in Lua - (2015-11-05)
  [4753] Lua, Tcl, Python, C and C++ courses - at our Melksham HQ or on your site - forward from July 2017 - (2017-07-02)

U106 - Lua - Functions.
  [1685] Short circuit evaluation (lazy operator) in Lua - (2008-06-22)
  [1697] Sorting in lua - specifying your own sort routine - (2008-07-05)
  [1744] Lua examples, Lua Courses - (2008-08-08)
  [1847] Lua - IAQ (Infrequently Answered Questions) - (2008-10-18)
  [2312] What are closures in Lua? - (2009-07-31)
  [2347] Dot, dot, dot in Lua - variable length parameter lists - (2009-08-11)
  [2356] Passing multiple results back from a function - Lua, Python, etc - (2009-08-13)
  [2723] Returning multiple values from a function - Lua - (2010-04-15)
  [2949] Lua - variable function arguments and select - (2010-09-08)
  [3695] Functions are first class variables in Lua and Python - (2012-04-13)

G996 - Well House Consultants - Newsletter Scripts
  [1001] .pdf files - upload via PHP, store in MySQL, retrieve - (2006-12-19)
  [1066] Final, Finally and Finalize - three special words in Java - (2007-02-05)
  [1123] mysqldump and mysqlrestore - (2007-03-30)
  [1217] What are factory and singleton classes? - (2007-06-04)
  [1321] Resetting session based tests in PHP - (2007-08-26)
  [1387] Error logging to file not browser in PHP - (2007-10-11)
  [1487] Efficient PHP applications - framework and example - (2007-12-28)
  [1505] Script to present commonly used images - PHP - (2008-01-13)
  [1601] Replacing the last comma with an and - (2008-04-04)
  [1665] Factory method example - Perl - (2008-06-04)
  [1813] Ajax - going Asyncronous and what it means - (2008-09-28)
  [1954] mod_rewrite for newcomers - (2008-12-20)
  [2046] Finding variations on a surname - (2009-02-17)
  [2145] Using the internet to remotely check for power failure at home (PHP) - (2009-04-29)
  [2259] Grouping rows for a summary report - MySQL and PHP - (2009-06-27)
  [2360] Error Handling in Lua with assert and pcall - (2009-08-13)
  [2433] Controlling, supressing, enabling PHP error messages - (2009-10-02)
  [2539] Changing Images - (2009-12-17)
  [3179] Oops - I typed ci not vi, and have lost my file ... - (2011-02-21)

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