For a quick solution I suggest going with the load hack, but be aware that this only works if your code happens to be formatted as a Lua table already. Otherwise, you'd have to parse the string yourself.
For example, you could try using lpeg to build a recursive parser. I built something very similar a while ago:
local lpeg = require 'lpeg'
local name = lpeg.R('az')^1 / '\0'
local space = lpeg.S('\t ')^1
local function compile_tuple(...)
return string.char(select('#', ...)) .. table.concat{...}
end
local expression = lpeg.P {
'e';
e = name + lpeg.V 't';
t = '(' * ((lpeg.V 'e' * ',' * space)^0 * lpeg.V 'e') / compile_tuple * ')';
}
local compiled = expression:match '(foo, (a, b), bar)'
print(compiled:byte(1, -1))
Its purpose is to parse things in quotes like the example string (foo, (a, b), bar) and turn it into a binary string describing the structure; most of that happens in the compile_tuple function though, so it should be easy to modify it to do what you want.
What you'd have to adapt:
- change
name for number (and change the pattern accordingly to lpeg.R('09')^1, without the / '\0')
- change the
compile_tuple function to a build_table function (local function build_tanle(...) return {...} end should do the trick)
- Try it out and see if something else needs to be changed; I might have missed something.
You can read the lpeg manual here if you're curious about how this stuff works.
