How to assign global Lua function variables in Lua C API?

Question

I'm trying to rename some functions in Lua so I can call them more easily.

For example, of.getHours() function should be able to be called by ofGetHours().

So after initializing the Lua state, I loaded a Lua string which assigns these global function variables like the following:

luaL_dostring(L, "ofGetHours = of.getHours ofGetMinutes = of.getMinutes");

This method works fine but I would like to do this using the Lua C API to increase the performance and make my code more readable.

I think I need to use lua_setglobal() but I don't know how to properly do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It would be good if you started with Programming in Lua book, which has all the answers you will need: lua.org/pil/contents.html — Vlad
@Vlad Thank you for the link but I could not find what I need from the C API section. — Zack Lee

Vlad Vlad · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-21T07:08:01

Provided the os value is a global table, your code might look something like this:

lua_getglobal(L, "of");
lua_getfield(L, -1, "getMinutes");
lua_setglobal(L, "ofGetMinutes");
lua_getfield(L, -1, "getHours");
lua_setglobal(L, "ofGetHours");
lua_pop(L, 1);

How to assign global Lua function variables in Lua C API?

1 Answers