arranging tables

How can I arrange a table by using a part of the table.

for example i want to arrange the starting from the table with the status n/a to be the first, then the "close" then the "inactive and "active"

local t = {
{name = "Forward", status = "inactive"},
{name = "Back", status = "active" },
{name = "Up", status = "close" },
{name = "Down", status = "n/a" }
}
for i = 1, #t do
print(t[i].name)
end

Like this? o.O or am I not understanding?

local t = {
  {name = "Down", status = "n/a" },
  {name = "Up", status = "close" },
  {name = "Forward", status = "inactive"},
  {name = "Back", status = "active" },
}
for i = 1, #t do
  print(t[i].name)
end

I knew someone would reply with that answer xD
well what I want is to rearrange them using the table function or something because the status are changing by conditions.
something like this

if redstone.getOutput(left) == false then
  t[2] = close
  arrange()
end

pinksheep00, on 22 March 2013 - 04:30 AM said:

well what I want is to rearrange them using the table function or something because the status are changing by conditions.

oh ok i get you. sorry that should have been apparent. lol. lets blame it on the fact that its almost 3am…

Took me a while, but I get what you mean. You can use table.sort with a function.

table.sort(t, function( a, b ) 
  return a.status < b.status
end)

But you seem to have an odd order here which isn't alphabetical. In this case, I would define a custom string to keep the order you want, then use :find() within table.sort and compare the positions.

local order = "n/a close inactive active"

table.sort(t, function( a, b )
  return (order:find(a.status) or math.huge) < (order:find(b.status) or math.huge)
end)

The "or math.huge" bit makes it so that if an element isn't found in the string, it'll automatically be ordered last in the table.

as in

table.sort(table,function(a,b)
local function cnv(c)
local c=(c.status):gsub("n/a","a") c=c:gsub("close","b") c=c:gsub("innactive","c") c=c:gsub("active","d") return c
end
return cnv(a)<cnv(b)
end)

or something like that