Lua

Hello World in Lua

Lua is designed to be simple, and Hello World demonstrates this beautifully. In Lua, printing to the console is just one line—no imports, no classes, no boilerplate.

The Code

Create a file named …

Variables and Types in Lua

Lua takes a minimalist approach to its type system. With only eight basic types and no type declarations required, Lua lets you focus on solving problems rather than satisfying a compiler. Variables …

Operators in Lua

Operators are the verbs of a programming language—they perform the work of combining, comparing, and transforming values. Lua, true to its minimalist philosophy, keeps its operator set small but …

Control Flow in Lua

Control flow is how a program decides what to run and how many times to run it. As a dynamically typed scripting language, Lua keeps its control structures small and consistent: a handful of keywords …

Functions in Lua

Functions are the primary unit of reuse in Lua, and they are also one of the language’s most powerful features. In Lua, functions are first-class values: you can store them in variables, pass …

0 or 1? The Array Indexing War That Never Ended

Ask a programmer which languages start arrays at 0 and which start them at 1, and you’ll get a confident answer. Ask them why, and the conversation gets interesting fast.

Most developers assume …

Strings Are Not Simple: How 12 Languages Model Text (And Why They Disagree)

Every programming language has strings. They’re so universal — so unremarkable — that we rarely stop to ask how they actually work. You type some characters between quotation marks, hand them to …