Print does not return table values

Question

pokecatches = {
["Bulbasaur"] = {chance = 150, corpse = 5969},
["Ivysaur"] = {chance = 275, corpse = 5982},
["Venusaur"] = {chance = 400, corpse = 5962},
}
print(table.maxn(pokecatches))
corpses = {}
for x=1, table.maxn(pokecatches) do
table.insert(corpses, pokecatches[x].corpse)
end
print(table.concat(corpses, ","))
io.read()

This snippet should add the Corpse value to the Corpses table, but it won’t, print(table.man(pokecatches)) returns 0. Anyone knows why?

Answer 1

The problem is you want to iterate on one set as if it were a simple table.

One possibility to adjust the code is to restructure the data as a table, to iterate by numerical index (pokecatches[x]):

pokecatches = {
   { name = "Bulbasaur", chance = 150, corpse = 5969},
   { name = "Ivysaur"  , chance = 275, corpse = 5982},
   { name = "Venusaur" , chance = 400, corpse = 5962},
}
print(table.maxn(pokecatches))
corpses = {}
for x=1, table.maxn(pokecatches) do
   table.insert(corpses, pokecatches[x].corpse)
end
print(table.concat(corpses, ","))

The Outram to maintain the use of sets, is iterate with for .. in to obtain the key and value data with pair:

pokecatches = {
   ["Bulbasaur"] = {chance = 150, corpse = 5969},
   ["Ivysaur"] = {chance = 275, corpse = 5982},
   ["Venusaur"] = {chance = 400, corpse = 5962},
}

corpses = {}
for name, data in pairs(pokecatches) do
   table.insert(corpses, data.corpse)
end
print(table.concat(corpses, ","))

See the two working on IDEONE