inspector.lua

-- Prints the variable (even a table) in detail.  It is very useful for tables
--   where print() is more or less useless.
function inspect(variable, indentation)
  local inspected = "" -- this will be printed at the end
  local inner_indentation = indentation and indentation + 1 or 0 -- for nested tables

  local tabs = "" -- also for nested tables
  for i=1,inner_indentation do
    tabs = tabs .. "\t"
  end

  if type(variable) == "table" then
    local itabs = tabs .. "\t" -- inner tabs

    inspected = inspected .. "{\n"

    for k, v in pairs(variable) do
      local value = inspect(v, inner_indentation)
      local key = k

      -- number keys are iterated before string ones (as of Lua v5.1)
      if type(key) == "number" then
        inspected = inspected .. itabs .. value .. ",\n"
      elseif type(key) == "string" then
        inspected = inspected .. itabs .. key .. " = " .. value .. ",\n"
      else
        print("Unrecognized key type:", type(key))
      end
    end
    inspected = inspected .. tabs .. "}"

  elseif type(variable) == "string" then
    inspected = inspected .. '"' .. variable .. '"'
  elseif type(variable) == "number" then
    inspected = inspected .. variable
  elseif type(variable) == "boolean" then
    if variable then
      inspected = inspected .. "true"
    else
      inspected = inspected .. "false"
    end
  elseif type(variable) == "nil" then
    inspected = inspected .. "nil"
  else
    print("Unrecognized variable type:", type(variable))
  end

  if inner_indentation == 0 then -- outer table or no table
    print(inspected)
  else -- inside a table
    return inspected
  end
end