What is the alternative for switch statement in Lua language?

Question

I have this piece of code in C++ and i want to know how can i write some codes that replace switch statement in Lua because i face many problems and i need to use this statement.

   int choice;
do// loop
{
      cout<<"\n >>> The General Menu <<< \n";
      cout << endl;
    cout<< " press (1) to Add    "<<endl;
    cout<< " press (2) to Save   "<<endl;
    cout<< " press (3) to Quit " << endl;
    cout<< endl;
      cout<< "Enter your choice please (1/2/3): ";
    cin>>choice;

    switch(choice)
    {
        case 1: 
            add();
            break;
        case 2:
            save();
            break;

        default:
            cout<<" The program has been terminated "<<endl;
           cout<<" Thank you! \n";          
    }   
} while (choice != 3);

} The statement has been used inside a do..while loop.

Answer 1

In general, if you want a switch statement in Lua, what you ought to be doing is building a table. For your simple case of choice that could be 1, 2, or fail, a simple if statement with a few conditions is sufficient. For more complex cases, a table of functions should be employed:

local c_tbl =
{
  [1] = add,
  [2] = save,
}

local func = c_tbl[choice]
if(func) then
  func()
else
  print " The program has been terminated."
  print " Thank you!";
end

You can use lexical scoping to allow the functions in the table to be able to access local variables, just as if the code was written inline.

Answer 2

Try this one (click here to run the script in a Lua compiler), Hope the code is self-explanatory ;-) and

resembles the same pseudo code format..!!

print("enter your choice : ")
mychoice = io.read()

switch = function (choice)
  -- accepts both number as well as string
  choice = choice and tonumber(choice) or choice     -- returns a number if the choic is a number or string. 

  -- Define your cases
  case =
   {
     [1] = function ( )                              -- case 1 : 
             print("your choice is Number 1 ")       -- code block
     end,                                            -- break statement

     add = function ( )                              -- case 'add' : 
             print("your choice is string add ")     -- code block
     end,                                            -- break statement

    ['+'] = function ( )                             -- case '+' : 
             print("your choice is char + ")         -- code block
     end,                                            -- break statement

     default = function ( )                          -- default case
             print(" your choice is din't match any of those specified cases")   
     end,                                            -- u cant exclude end hear :-P
   }

  -- execution section
  if case[choice] then
     case[choice]()
  else
     case["default"]()
  end

end
-- Now you can use it as a regular function. Tadaaa..!!
switch(mychoice)

Answer 3

While simply creating a table indexed by cases with functions as elements is most probably the fastest approach, there is this solution I've made which IMO has better code readability:

function switch(element)
  local Table = {
    ["Value"] = element,
    ["DefaultFunction"] = nil,
    ["Functions"] = {}
  }
  
  Table.case = function(testElement, callback)
    Table.Functions[testElement] = callback
    return Table
  end
  
  Table.default = function(callback)
    Table.DefaultFunction = callback
    return Table
  end
  
  Table.process = function()
    local Case = Table.Functions[Table.Value]
    if Case then
      Case()
    elseif Table.DefaultFunction then
      Table.DefaultFunction()
    end
  end
  
  return Table
end

Example Use:

switch(Player:GetName())
  .case("Kate", function() print("This player's name rhymes with Fate")end)
  .case("Tod", function() print("This player's name rhymes with Cod") end)
  .default(function() print("This player's name is not Kate or Tod") end)
  .process()