- Lua Tutorial
- Lua - Home
- Lua Basics
- Lua - Overview
- Lua - Environment
- Lua - Basic Syntax
- Lua - Comments
- Lua - Print Hello World
- Lua - Variables
- Lua - Data Types
- Lua - Operators
- Lua - Loops
- Lua - Generic For
- Lua - Decision Making
- Lua - Date and Time
- Lua Functions
- Lua - Functions
- Lua - Multiple Results
- Lua - Named Arguments
- Lua - Default/Optional Arguments
- Lua - Closures
- Lua - Uses of Closures
- Lua - Local Functions
- Lua - Anonymous Functions
- Lua - Functions in Table
- Lua - Proper Tail Calls
- Lua Strings
- Lua - Strings
- Lua - String Concatenation
- Lua - Loop Through String
- Lua - String to Int
- Lua - Split String
- Lua - Check String is NULL
- Lua Arrays
- Lua - Arrays
- Lua - Multi-dimensional Arrays
- Lua - Array Length
- Lua - Iterating Over Arrays
- Lua - Slicing Arrays
- Lua - Sorting Arrays
- Lua - Merging Arrays
- Lua - Sparse Arrays
- Lua - Searching Arrays
- Lua - Resizing Arrays
- Lua - Array to String Conversion
- Lua - Array as Stack
- Lua - Array as Queue
- Lua - Array with Metatables
- Lua - Immutable Arrays
- Lua - Shuffling Arrays
- Lua Iterators
- Lua - Iterators
- Lua - Stateless Iterators
- Lua - Stateful Iterators
- Lua - Built-in Iterators
- Lua - Custom Iterators
- Lua - Iterator Closures
- Lua - Infinite Iterators
- Lua - File Iterators
- Lua - Table Iterators
- Lua - Numeric Iterators
- Lua - Reverse Iterators
- Lua - Filter Iterators
- Lua - Range Iterators
- Lua - Chaining Iterators
- Lua Tables
- Lua - Tables
- Lua - Tables as Arrays
- Lua - Tables as Dictionaries
- Lua - Tables as Sets
- Lua - Table Length
- Lua - Table Iteration
- Lua - Table Constructors
- Lua - Loop through Table
- Lua - Merge Tables
- Lua - Nested Tables
- Lua - Accessing Table Fields
- Lua - Copy Table by Value
- Lua - Get Entries from Table
- Lua - Table Metatables
- Lua - Tables as Objects
- Lua - Table Inheritance
- Lua - Table Cloning
- Lua - Table Sorting
- Lua - Table Searching
- Lua - Table Serialization
- Lua - Weak Tables
- Lua - Table Memory Management
- Lua - Tables as Stacks
- Lua - Tables as Queues
- Lua - Sparse Tables
- Lua Lists
- Lua - Lists
- Lua - Inserting Elements into Lists
- Lua - Removing Elements from Lists
- Lua - Iterating Over Lists
- Lua - Reverse Iterating Over Lists
- Lua - Accessing List Elements
- Lua - Modifying List Elements
- Lua - List Length
- Lua - Concatenate Lists
- Lua - Slicing Lists
- Lua - Sorting Lists
- Lua - Reversing Lists
- Lua - Searching in Lists
- Lua - Shuffling List
- Lua - Multi-dimensional Lists
- Lua - Sparse Lists
- Lua - Lists as Stacks
- Lua - Lists as Queues
- Lua - Functional Operations on Lists
- Lua - Immutable Lists
- Lua - List Serialization
- Lua - Metatables with Lists
- Lua Modules
- Lua - Modules
- Lua - Returning Functions from Modules
- Lua - Returning Functions Table from Modules
- Lua - Module Scope
- Lua - SubModule
- Lua - Module Caching
- Lua - Custom Module Loaders
- Lua - Namespaces
- Lua - Singleton Modules
- Lua - Sharing State Between Modules
- Lua - Module Versioning
- Lua Metatables
- Lua - Metatables
- Lua - Chaining Metatables
- Lua - Proxy Tables with Metatables
- Lua - Use Cases for Proxy Table
- Lua - Delegation and Tracing via Proxy Tables
- Lua - Metatables vs Metamethods
- Lua - Fallback Mechanisms in Metatables
- Lua - Fallback Cases for Indexing Metamethods
- Lua - Fallback Cases for Arithmetic and Comparison Metamethods
- Lua - Fallback Cases for Other Metamethods
- Lua - Customizing Behavior with Metatables
- Lua - Controlling Table Access
- Lua - Overloading Operators
- Lua - Customizing Comparisons
- Lua - Making a Table Callable
- Lua - Customizing String Representation
- Lua - Controlling Metatable Access
- Lua Coroutines
- Lua - Coroutines
- Lua - Coroutine Lifecycle
- Lua - Communication Between Coroutines
- Lua - Coroutines vs Threads
- Lua - Chaining Coroutines
- Lua - Chaining Coroutines With Scheduler
- Lua - Chaining Coroutines Using Queues
- Lua - Coroutine Control Flow
- Lua - Nested Coroutines
- Lua File Handling
- Lua - File I/O
- Lua - Opening Files
- Lua - Modes for File Access
- Lua - Reading Files
- Lua - Writing Files
- Lua - Closing Files
- Lua - Renaming Files
- Lua - Deleting Files
- Lua - File Buffers and Flushing
- Lua - Reading Files Line by Line
- Lua - Binary File Handling
- Lua - File Positioning
- Lua - Appending to Files
- Lua - Error Handling in File Operations
- Lua - Checking if File exists
- Lua - Checking if File is Readable
- Lua - Checking if File is Writable
- Lua - Checking if File is ReadOnly
- Lua - File Descriptors
- Lua - Creating Temporary Files
- Lua - File Iterators
- Lua - Working with Large Files
- Lua Advanced
- Lua - Error Handling
- Lua - Debugging
- Lua - Garbage Collection
- Lua - Object Oriented
- Lua - Web Programming
- Lua - Database Access
- Lua - Game Programing
- Sorting Algorithms
- Lua - Bubble Sort
- Lua - Insertion Sort
- Lua - Selection Sort
- Lua - Merge Sort
- Lua - Quick Sort
- Searching Algorithms
- Lua - Linear Search
- Lua - Binary Search
- Lua - Jump Search
- Lua - Interpolation Search
- Regular Expression
- Lua - Pattern Matching
- Lua - string.find() method
- Lua - string.gmatch() method
- Lua - string.gsub() method
- Lua Useful Resources
- Lua - Quick Guide
- Lua - Useful Resources
- Lua - Discussion
Lua Tutorial
This Lua tutorial lets you explore a new language, Lua. This tutorial has everything from fundamentals of the programming language to advanced concepts. After completing this tutorial, you will find yourself good with programming using Lua.
What is Lua?
Lua is an open source language built on top of C programming language. It is exclusively designed for embedded systems. It features dynamic typing, simple syntax and efficient memory management. Lua has its value across multiple platforms ranging from large server systems to small mobile applications.
The name "Lua" means 'Moon' in Portuguese. We should write as "Lua" not "LUA" because LUA can have different meanings for different people and confusing also.
Why Choose Lua?
Lua is free open-source software, known especially for game development. Some key features which makes Lua a popular choice are −
- Syntax of Lua is simple and minimal which makes it easy to learn.
- Lua uses dynamic typing, where we can assign any value to a variable without explicit type declaration.
- Lua can integrate with other programming languages and systems, which is used in multi-language projects.
- Lua is fast in terms of performance.
- Lua is portable i.e, runs perfectly on all platforms that has a standard C compiler like embedded processors, mobile devices and windows.
Jobs & Opportunities
Well , learning only Lua wouldn't help you get any job but Lua is quite an important tool to be skilled in if an individual is looking for these jobs −
- Game Developers
- Embedded systems developer
- Gameplay Programmer
- Software Developer
Lua- Scripted video games
Lua programming language is popularly used for scripting video games, as it relatively eases the process of embedding and deploying. Some notable games that use Lua are −
- World of Warcraft
- ROBLOX
- Angry Birds
Lua "Hello, World!"
To start with Lua programming, the very basic program is to print "Hello, World!". You can use the print() function. Below is an example of Lua code to print "Hello, World!" −
-- Lua code to print "Hello, World!"
print ("Hello, World!")
Lua Online Compiler
Our Lua programming tutorial provides various examples to explain different concepts. We have provided Online Lua Compiler/Interpreter. You can Edit and Execute almost all the examples directly from your browser without the need to set up your development environment.
Try to click the icon 
to run the following Lua code to print conventional "Hello, World!".
Below code box allows you to change the value of the code. Try to change the value inside print() and run it again to verify the result.
main.lua
-- This is my first Lua program.
-- This will print 'Hello, World!' as the output
print ("Hello, World!");
Prerequisites to Learn Lua
You don't have to know a lot of Prerequisites to learn Lua. However, knowledge on fundamental topics would make the process easy. Understanding basic programming concepts, scripting concepts and development environment would help even if you are a total beginner. Additionally, start the learning process with tutorials and explore sample codes.
Who Should Learn Lua?
This tutorial is designed for all those readers who are looking for a starting point to learn Lua. It has topics suitable for both beginners as well as advanced users.
Frequently Asked Questions about Lua
There are some important frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Lua, this section lists them down along with their answers briefly −
Lua is a lightweight, embeddable scripting language. It's often used in game development, web applications, embedded systems, and as a configuration language.
Lua supports object-oriented programming through tables and metatables, but it doesn't have classes in the traditional sense.
Lua is typically interpreted, but it can also be compiled into bytecode for performance optimization.
Lua supports numbers, strings, booleans, nil, tables, functions, and userdata.
Metatables allow you to customize the behavior of Lua tables, enabling features like operator overloading and metamethods.
Lua's simplicity, fast execution, and embeddability make it a suitable choice for scripting game logic, AI, and user interfaces.
Unity, Roblox, and World of Warcraft are notable examples of game engines that utilize Lua.
Lua is generally considered a fast scripting language, often outperforming other scripting languages in benchmarks.
Follow this tutorial chapter-wise for a complete understanding about Lua programming. Start Lua by installing Lua, writing basic scripts, and exploring its core concepts like variables, data types, control flow, and functions.