This package provide simple object-oriented capabilities to Lua. Each class is defined with a metatable, which contains methods. Inheritance is achieved by setting metatables over metatables. An efficient type checking is provided.
local class = require 'class' -- define some dummy A class local A = class('A') function A:__init(stuff) self.stuff = stuff end function A:run() print(self.stuff) end -- define some dummy B class, inheriting from A local B = class('B', 'A') function B:run5() for i=1,5 do print(self.stuff) end end -- create some instances of both classes local a = A('hello world from A') local b = B('hello world from B') -- run stuff a:run() b:run() b:run5()
First, require the package
local class = require 'class'
Note that class
does not clutter the global namespace.
Class metatables are then created with class(name)
or equivalently class.new(name)
.
local A = class('A') local B = class('B', 'A') -- B inherit from A
You then have to fill-up the returned metatable with methods.
function A:myMethod() -- do something end
There are two special methods: new()
, which already exists when the class is created and should not be overrided and __init()
which is called by new()
at the creation of the class.
function A:__init(args) -- do something with args -- note that self exists end
Creation of an instance is then achieved with the new()
function or (equivalently) using the Lua __call
metamethod:
local a = A('blah blah') -- an instance of A local aa = A.new('blah blah') -- equivalent of the above
class.new(name[, parentname])
Creates a new class called name
, which might optionally inherit from parentname
. Returns a table, in which methods should be defined.
Note that the returned table is not the metatable, but a constructor table (with a __call
function defined). In that respect, one can use the following shorthand:
local A = class.new('A') local a = A.new() -- instance. local aa = A() -- another instance (shorthand).
There is also a shorthandclass.new()
, which is class()
.
Return a new (empty) instance of the class name
. No __init
method will be called.
Return the metatable (i.e. the table containing all methods) related to class name
.
Return the type of the object obj
(if this is a known class), or the type returned by the standard lua type()
function (if it is not known).
Check is obj
is an instance (or a child) of class name
. Returns a boolean.
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