I'd like to make some associative tables e.g. table={x=7,y=90,z=40}
but I want to save tokens by using a string because I'm going to have a lot of them, and make a function that returns a table based on whatever is in the string.

So something like:

string1="x=7,y=90,z=40"
string2="empty=100, dinner=casserole, transport=horse, weight=150"

table1=assoc_table(string1)
table2=assoc_table(string2)

?table1.z          -- 40
?table2.transport  -- horse

how do I go about this? split wont work. what does my function assoc_table(str) look like?

There are many options, but I use HTBL().
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=36325

string1=htbl"x=7;y=90;z=40;"
string2=htbl"empty=100; dinner=casserole; transport=horse; weight=150;"

You can also define global variables collectively by using CAT() to join _ENVtables.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=41798

cat(_ENV,htbl[[
string1{x=7;y=90;z=40;}
string2{empty=100; dinner=casserole; transport=horse; weight=150;}
]])

you are right, split is the correct starting point - idea is to use 2 split!

— split each key/value
local tmp=split(“x=7,foo=bar”)
local out={}
for kv in all(tmp) do
 — split a pair + extract table values with unpack
 local k,v=unpack(split(kv,”=“))
 out[k]=v
end

@shiftalow, @freds72,
I'm going to use both of your suggestions and play with them because freds is more what I was expecting (although I didn't know about unpack() and I can't find it in the manual...) but also the cart that shiftalow linked is just too cool and perfect not to give a try. Thanks a bunch!

p.s. shiftalow, I'm amazed you wrote that cart 5 years ago and found my question so quickly :)