Get lua table entry from C via integer key - c++

Question

I am currently using the following code to get a value from a table (cstring = const char*):
template<>
cstring luaTable::get(cstring name) {
prep_get(name); // puts table[name] at -1 in stack
cstring result;
if(!lua_isstring(L, -1)) {
report(name, "is not a string");
result = "";
}
else {
result = lua_tostring(L, -1);
}
lua_pop(L, 1);
return result;
}
void luaTable::prep_get(cstring name) {
lua_pushstring(L, name); // name at -1, table at -2
lua_gettable(L, -2);
// table[name] is now at position -1 in stack
}
This works perfectly for tables of form table = {a=10, b=2}. How can I modify it to get values from tables without keys such as table = {10, 2}?
I'm sure I'm missing something simple but can't seem to find the answer.
Thanks in advance,
Ben
Edit: added some pops

Answer 1

Okay sorry to answer my own question so soon - but a quick flash of inspiration lead to:
void luaTable::prep_get(cstring name) {
lua_pushstring(L, name); // name string at -1
if(lua_isnumber(L, -1)) { // call prep_get("i") for ith element etc
int key = lua_tonumber(L, -1);
lua_pop(L, 1); // remove the name string from -1
lua_pushnumber(L, key); // push name number to -1
}
lua_gettable(L, -2);
// result is now at position -1 in stack
}
which works as desired.

Answer 2

#user1483596 I don't think that solution would work. lua_isnumber will only return true if the value is of type number, and you just pushed a string, so it will always return false.
Instead, try something like this:
void luaTable::prep_get(cstring name) {
int num = strtol(name, 0, 0);
if (num > 0) {
lua_pushnumber(L, num);
} else {
lua_pushstring(L, name);
}
lua_gettable(L, -2);
}
Bear in mind though that it won't handle a special case. In Lua a[1] and a["1"] are different. If you use this function, you'll always treat numbers as array indices, even if they're not.
If you want to differentiate both cases, then you could overload prep_get and take a number.