Reading Lua nested tables in C++ - c++

Question

I'm creating a C/C++ function which will be called from Lua. My function must call a library function who's signature is like this:
void libFunction( int val1, int val2, tSETTINGS * pSettings );
I'm given these C/C++ structs:
typedef struct
{
int cmd;
int arg;
} tCOMMAND;
typedef struct
{
int numberCommands;
int id;
tCOMMAND commands[1];
} tSETTINGS;
Maybe my thinking is all wrong on this, but from Lua I'm calling like this:
id = 42
val1 = 1
val2 = 2
cmd1 = { 3, 4 }
cmd2 = { 5, 6 }
commands = { cmd1, cmd2 }
settings = { #commands, id, commands }
mycfunction( val1, val2, settings )
I'm sure that I'm still not understanding the Lua stack as referenced from C++, since what I'm trying just doesn't work. My solution is able to retrieve val1, val2, #commands and id, but when I try to retrieve commands[0] and commands[1] I get {1, 2} and {2, 42} respectively.
My C++ is essentially like this (for this sample I'm discarding the values). I've already retrieved val1 and val2:
int stkNdx = 1;
lua_rawgeti(L, 3, stkNdx++ );
int numcmds = lua_tointeger(L, -1); // this successfully retrieves numberCommands 2
lua_pop(L, 1);
lua_rawgeti(L, 3, stkNdx++ );
int id = lua_tointeger(L, -1); // this successfully retrieves id 42
lua_pop(L, 1);
lua_pushvalue(L, -1 );
lua_pushnil(L);
int cmdNbr = 0;
for( lua_next(L, -2); cmdNbr < numcmds; cmdNbr++ )
{
lua_pushvalue(L, -2);
int cmd = lua_tointeger(L, -1);
int arg = lua_tointeger(L, -1);
lua_pop(L, 2);
lua_next(L, -2);
}
lua_pop(L, 1);
I've tried various permutations of lua_rawgeti() followed by lua_tonumber() and lua_pop(), with basically the same result.
This seems similar to this question, and my solution is modeled after that with no success.
Experimenting more I inserted this:
lua_pushnil(L);
while( lua_next(L, -2) )
{
if( ! lua_istable(L, -1) )
{
int v = lua_tointeger(L, -1);
}
lua_pop(L, 1);
}
This loop executes 4 times. The first 2 times the values 2 and 42 are assigned to v. The next 2 iterations skip the assignment (lua_istable returned true). So it seems that although I've already retrieved numcmds and id, they're still there on the stack. I also clearly don't understand how to iterate over the subtables when they're encountered.

Answer 1

Lua table indices range from [1 .. N] instead of [0 .. N-1].
Your loop should be:
int cmdNbr = 1;
for( lua_next(L, -2); cmdNbr <= numcmds; cmdNbr++ )
{
...
}
or as I prefer it:
lua_rawgeti(L, 3, 2 );
int id = lua_tointeger(L, -1); // this successfully retrieves id 42
lua_pop(L, 1);
lua_rawgeti(L, 3, 3);
{
// commands table at stack top
size_t N = lua_objlen(L,-1); // size of the table
for (int i = 1; i <= N; ++i)
{
lua_rawgeti(L,-1, i); // cmd# at stack top
{
lua_rawgeti(L,-1,1); // first entry
int cmd = lua_tointeger(L,-1);
lua_pop(L,1);
lua_rawgeti(L,-1,2); // second entry
int arg = lua_tointeger(L,-1);
lua_pop(L,1);
}
lua_pop(L, 1); // pop cmd#
}
}
lua_pop(L, 1); // pop commands table
Note that, with the function lua_objlen(L,idx), it's not necessary to pass numcmds.