I wrote this library to cut down on the number of tokens taken up by large tables with string data, e.g. for dialogue text/translations/etc. Most helpful if those tokens are using a lot of your tokens (i.e. more than 150), since the library itself takes up 139 tokens. But all your table declarations can be reduced to 5 tokens each!
Here's an example of what your code can look like.
Before:
my_table = {
hello='world',
nested={
some='data\'s nested',
inside_of='here'
},
'and',
'indexed',
'data',
{ as='well' }
} |
After:
function table_from_string(str)
local tab, is_key = {}, true
local key,val,is_on_key
local function reset()
key,val,is_on_key = '','',true
end
reset()
local i, len = 1, #str
while i <= len do
local char = sub(str, i, i)
-- token separator
if char == '\31' then
if is_on_key then
is_on_key = false
else
tab[tonum(key) or key] = val
reset()
end
-- subtable start
elseif char == '\29' then
local j,c = i,''
-- checking for subtable end character
while (c ~= '\30') do
j = j + 1
c = sub(str, j, j)
end
tab[tonum(key) or key] = table_from_string(sub(str,i+1,j-1))
reset()
i = j
else
if is_on_key then
key = key..char
else
val = val..char
end
end
i = i + 1
end
return tab
end
my_table=
table_from_string(
'1�and�2�indexed�3�data�4�as�well��hello�world�nested�inside_of�here�some�data\'s nested��'
) |
Clearly it's more helpful if your data table is much larger than this. In my case, my data tables took up almost 200 tokens, and I saved about 50 using this technique. If I go to add more translations in the future, it will save even more.
And no I wouldn't suggest keeping this compressed version as your only record of your data table, of course! For my own workflow, I am setting up an automated script to take my data table from a separate Lua file and periodically update the contents of the p8 file with the stringified version.
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