how to break out of a for loop in lua

Question

i have the following code:

  for k, v in pairs(temptable) do
         if string.match(k,'doe') then 
              if v["name"] == var2 then
                     txterr =  "Invalid name for "..k
                     duplicate = true
             end
             if duplicate then
                     break
             end
         end
    end 

when duplicate is set to true, i want to exit the for loop all together. right now, it just loops through all the values in the table even if it finds a match.

i tried using the break statement but i think it is breaking out of the "if" statement.

i was thinking about a do while loop i could wrap around the entire for loop but i would still need a way to break out of the for.

thanks.

Answer 1

I tried the following:

temptable = {a=1, doe1={name=1}, doe2={name=2}, doe3={name=2}}
var2 = 1
for k, v in pairs(temptable) do
    print('trying', k)
    if string.match(k,'doe') then 
        print('match doe', k, v.name, var2)
        if v["name"] == var2 then
            txterr =  "Invalid name for "..k
            duplicate = true
            print('found at k=', k)
        end
        if duplicate then
            print('breaking')
            break
        end
    end
end 

and it works:

trying  doe2
match doe   doe2    2   1
trying  doe1
match doe   doe1    1   1
found at k= doe1
breaking

As you can see it skipped a and doe3. The error is therefore elsewhere: var2 or your names are not what you think (like the name values are strings whereas var2 is number), or you don't have any keys that match.