Reading unserialized tables from file

Hey,

So i'm trying to send a serialized table over rednet, and write it to a file on the other end. I have this working, but what I can't figure out how to do is read from the table once unserialized. In the file, it looks like this:

{1.0=Bob, 2.0=16, 3.0=Male}

I'm trying to get, say, entry 1 in the table (bob). Any ideas on how I could do this?

Let's say you assigned your unserialised table to "myTable" - to get at index 1, you'd refer to myTable[1]. Eg:

print(myTable[1])

Bomb Bloke, on 11 November 2014 - 12:16 PM said:

Let's say you assigned your unserialised table to "myTable" - to get at index 1, you'd refer to myTable[1]. Eg:

print(myTable[1])

f = fs.open("2", "r")
myTable = f.readLine()
f.close()
print(myTable) -- prints the table in 1 line
print(myTable[1]) -- prints a blak line

Just prints a blank line.

Yes as said above:
You are using an array, which means to get the values in the table it's ordered by 1 and upwards:
so myTable[1] is Bob, myTable[2] is 16 and myTable[3] is male.

if you want to print all values onto a in a list going down use:

for _, v in ipairs(myTable) do
    print(v)
end

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 12:23 PM said:

Bomb Bloke, on 11 November 2014 - 12:16 PM said:

Let's say you assigned your unserialised table to "myTable" - to get at index 1, you'd refer to myTable[1]. Eg:

print(myTable[1])

f = fs.open("2", "r")
myTable = f.readLine()
f.close()
print(myTable) -- prints the table in 1 line
print(myTable[1]) -- prints a blak line

Just prints a blank line.

This is because you haven't made the text a string…

This should be:

{1.0="Bob", 2.0=16, 3.0="Male"}

If print(myTable) "prints the table in one line", then I'm guessing you haven't actually unserialised the table:

myTable = textutils.unserialise(myTable)

Note that unless you're using a very old version of ComputerCraft, there's no need to serialise it in the first place unless you want to write it to disk. Modem/rednet transmissions will deal with just fine in an unserialised state.

-snip-

Bomb Bloke, on 11 November 2014 - 12:28 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 12:24 PM said:

-snip-

Forgive me if I am being ignorantly stupid here, but I took your advice and just straight out sent the table over rednet, then used
for _, v in ipairs(myTable) do
print(v)
end

to print it.

It just prints:

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 12:53 PM said:

-snip-

Bomb Bloke, on 11 November 2014 - 12:28 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 12:24 PM said:

-snip-

Forgive me if I am being ignorantly stupid here, but I took your advice and just straight out sent the table over rednet, then used
for _, v in ipairs(myTable) do
print(v)
end

to print it.

It just prints:

This means that you are storing it as a table inside a table, what does the table look like at the moment?

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 01:11 PM said:

-snip-

{1.0=bob, 2.0=16, 3.0=male}

I stopped printing it, it now just writes it to a file as soon as it is received. That is what it looks like in the file. All I want is to be able to extract each element in the table, but I get blank when I try.

Thanks for the help, btw.

What is your current code? It might be a problem on how you're sending/receiving.

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 01:19 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 01:11 PM said:

-snip-

{1.0=bob, 2.0=16, 3.0=male}

I stopped printing it, it now just writes it to a file as soon as it is received. That is what it looks like in the file. All I want is to be able to extract each element in the table, but I get blank when I try.

Thanks for the help, btw.

The text is not a string?:S

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 02:20 PM said:

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 01:19 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 01:11 PM said:

-snip-

{1.0=bob, 2.0=16, 3.0=male}

I stopped printing it, it now just writes it to a file as soon as it is received. That is what it looks like in the file. All I want is to be able to extract each element in the table, but I get blank when I try.

Thanks for the help, btw.

The text is not a string?:S

stringTable = tostring(myTable)?

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 03:13 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 02:20 PM said:

Imprivate, on 11 November 2014 - 01:19 PM said:

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 01:11 PM said:

-snip-

{1.0=bob, 2.0=16, 3.0=male}

I stopped printing it, it now just writes it to a file as soon as it is received. That is what it looks like in the file. All I want is to be able to extract each element in the table, but I get blank when I try.

Thanks for the help, btw.

The text is not a string?:S

stringTable = tostring(myTable)?

Nope, the actual values aren't strings? Bob and "Bob" are very different things, the Bob needs to be "Bob", same with any other values that aren't numbers.

myTable = {"hello","hi","nooo"}
stringTable = textutils.serialize(myTable)
print(stringTable)

Prints out:

{
  [1] = "hello",
  [2] = "hi",
  [3] = "nooo"
}

However using unserialize on the file's data will give you the normal table.

local tableString = "{ [1] = \"hello\", [2] = \"hi\", [3] = \"nooo\" }" --#Backslashes for escaping the quotes
local stringTable = textutils.unserialize(tableString)
print(stringTable[1])

Prints out:

hello

DannySMc, on 11 November 2014 - 03:18 PM said:

-snip-

EDIT:

Must be an error in my syntax along the way, retyped it using your guys' first suggestions, works fine. Thanks for all the help.