Comparing two index tables by index-value in lua

Question

I'm attempting to compare two tables of equal length with a function, since I don't know of any other way to do so. However, with the following function, it fails to register, and I've no clue why. I'm hoping someone can provide insight to this problem or has a better way of comparing the two tables.

The tables are being populated with the following code:

str = "parameters determined by program (all digits)"
tableone = {}
for word in str:gmatch("%d") do table.insert(tableone,word) end

It's identical for both tables, except, of course, the individual table names. The tables are being populated properly, and display properly when I print them. Here are two tables for the sake of this question:

tableone = {}
tabletwo = {}
for i=1,4 do table.insert(tableone, i) end
for i=1,4 do table.insert(tabletwo, i) end

Obviously, these two tables are going to be equal to each other. The function I wrote to compare the index tables is as follows:

function comparetables(t1, t2)
matchct = 0
 for i=1,#t1 do
    if t1[i] == t2[i] then
    matchct = matchct + 1
    end
if matchct == #t1 then
return true
end
end

I tried doing

print(comparetables(tableone,tabletwo))

to see if it'll print "true" but no luck. To me, it seems like it should work without a problem. Yet it doesn't. What am I missing? I've tried searching for something like a table.compare function that someone may have already written, but no such luck in finding one. Thanks for any suggestions!

Additional information:

The reason I'm comparing tables is for a mastermaind-type game. That means the following three rules must apply when comparing tables. The function I created was to just get me started, thinking I could work from there.

1. When comparing the tables, if the numbers match, Ccount increases by 1.
2. When comparing tables, if the value exists in a different index position, increment Pcount by 1

For example, with a table of values {1, 3, 3, 4} and a guess of {4, 4, 3, 1}, it would return Pcount of 2 (the one 4 and the 1) and a Ccount of 1 (the three in the third position). I think one of the hardest parts is going to be getting the comparison to recognize that the second 4 in the guess should not increment the Pcount at all.

Answer 1

A slight variant on your code that should work is:

function comparetables(t1, t2)
  if #t1 ~= #t2 then return false end
  for i=1,#t1 do
    if t1[i] ~= t2[i] then return false end
  end
  return true
end

However I use something more like this: It checks the types of the arguments, their metatables, and a few other cases.

-- This is not clever enough to find matching table keys
-- i.e. this will return false
--   recursive_compare( { [{}]:1 }, { [{}]:1 } )
-- but this is unusual enough for me not to care ;)
-- It can also get stuck in infinite loops if you use it on 
-- an evil table like this:
--     t = {}
--     t[1] = t

function recursive_compare(t1,t2)
  -- Use usual comparison first.
  if t1==t2 then return true end
  -- We only support non-default behavior for tables
  if (type(t1)~="table") then return false end
  -- They better have the same metatables
  local mt1 = getmetatable(t1)
  local mt2 = getmetatable(t2)
  if( not recursive_compare(mt1,mt2) ) then return false end

  -- Check each key-value pair
  -- We have to do this both ways in case we miss some.
  -- TODO: Could probably be smarter and not check those we've 
  -- already checked though!
  for k1,v1 in pairs(t1) do
    local v2 = t2[k1]
    if( not recursive_compare(v1,v2) ) then return false end
  end
  for k2,v2 in pairs(t2) do
    local v1 = t1[k2]
    if( not recursive_compare(v1,v2) ) then return false end
  end

  return true  
end

Here's an example of it in use:

print( recursive_compare( {1,2,3,{1,2,1}}, {1,2,3,{1,2,1}} ) ) -- prints true
print( recursive_compare( {1,2,3,{1,2,1}}, {2,2,3,{1,2,3}} ) ) -- prints false

Answer 2

If you're comparing objects that are more objecty than tabley in an Object oriented sense, then I'd look at implementing the functions in the lua OO way.

Something like this should do the trick:

GameState = {}
GameState.mt = {}
GameState.mt.fns = {}
GameState.mt.__index =  GameState.mt.fns

function GameState.new(a,b,c,d)
-- TODO: put argument checks here...
  local retval = {}
  retval[1] = a
  retval[2] = b
  retval[3] = c
  retval[4] = d
  setmetatable(retval, GameState.mt)
  return retval
end

function GameState.mt.fns.print( self )
  print(" GameState: ", self[1], self[2], self[3], self[4] )
end

function GameState.mt.__tostring( self )
  return "GameState: "..self[1].." "..self[2].." "..self[3].." "..self[4]
end

function GameState.mt.__eq(self, other)
  -- Check it's actually a GameState, and all its bits match
  return getmetatable(other)==GameState.mt and
    (self[1] == other[1]) and 
    (self[2] == other[2]) and 
    (self[3] == other[3]) and 
    (self[4] == other[4])
end

Then you'd use it like this:

state1 = GameState.new(1,2,3,4)
state2 = GameState.new(1,2,3,4)

print("State 1 is:")
state1:print()

print("State 2 is:")
print(state2)

print( "state1 == state2 : ", state1 == state2 )

print( "Changing state 2") 
state2[1]=2

print( "state1 == state2 : ", state1 == state2 )