Type values

The lua type() function has fixed strings that it returns depending upon the type of value represented by its argument. These constant strings are 'boolean', 'function', 'nil', 'number', 'string', 'table' (and not commonly seen in openeuo, 'userdata' and 'thread').

print(type(print))
print(type('A'))
print(type(1))
print(type({}))
print(type(nil))
local b = 6
print(type(b))
print(type(false))

--> 'function'
--> 'string'
--> 'number'
--> 'table'
--> 'nil'
--> 'number'
--> 'boolean'

Lua doesn't distinguish between integer and floating point numeric types-- both are stored as floating point numbers. This only makes a difference for mathematical operations involving or resulting in very large integers (15 decimal digit precision). Also, care should be taken when discriminating between boolean false and the value nil.

See Also

• false

• math.huge

• nil

• true

• type