vardump for Lua (modified from Lua Gems)

gistfile1.lua

--
-- vardump
-- original verstion by Tobias Sulzenbruck and Christoph Beckmann
-- source: Lua Gems, page 29
-- modifications: Krishna Kotecha
--

--[[
	value - the value to dump

	key		- checked for adding a prefix. Used for printing tables
					and for printing out the index of the table cell.
					
	depth	- used for indentation
					
	options - a table used to pass in additional information to this function:
						options.metatable - a boolean flag used to indicate whether
																the current table passed in value is a metatable.
--]]
function vardump(value, depth, key, options)
	options = options or {}
	local linePrefix = ""
	local spaces = ""

	-- add a line prefix if necessary...
	if key ~= nil then
		linePrefix = "["..key.."] = " 
	end
	
	-- depending on the table depth, add spaces to 
	-- the front of each line for readability
	if depth == nil then
		depth = 0
	else
		depth = depth + 1
		for i = 1, depth do
			spaces = spaces .. " "
		end
	end
	
	if type(value) == 'table' then
		tableDescription = '(table) '
		if options.metatable ~= nil then
			tableDescription = '(- metatable) '		
		end

		print(spaces .. linePrefix .. tableDescription)
		
		-- deal with the current table's metatable...
		mTable = getmetatable(value)
		if mTable ~= nil then
			vardump(mTable, depth + 1, nil, {metatable = true})
		end
		
		-- now print out the table...
		for tableKey, tableValue in pairs(value) do
			vardump(tableValue, depth, tableKey)
		end
		
	elseif type(value) == 'function'
			or type(value) == 'thread'
			or type(value) == 'userdata'
			or type(value) == 'nil' 
	then
--		print(spaces .. tostring(value))
		print(spaces .. linePrefix ..  tostring(value))
	else
		print(spaces .. linePrefix .. "(" .. type(value) .. ") " .. tostring(value))
	end

end