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lua-tables-deque

A high-performance Deque (Queue/Stack) library for Lua.

Tables.lua (Deque Library)

A high-performance Double-Ended Queue (Deque) implementation for Lua. This library provides a unified structure to handle Queues (FIFO), Stacks (LIFO), and general-purpose list manipulations with efficiency.

🚀 Features

  • Fast Operations: push, pop, and dequeue run in $O(1)$ time.
  • Memory Managed: Automatically clears internal references to support the Lua Garbage Collector.
  • Sequential Reliability: Uses internal pointers (first/last) to avoid common pitfalls with the Lua # operator.
  • Built-in Iterators: Native support for forward and reverse traversal.

📦 Installation

Download tables.lua and place it in your project directory. Load it using:

local tables = require("tables")

🛠️ Quick Start

Note: Always initialize your structure with tables.create() before use.

  • As a Queue (First-In, First-Out)

local queue = tables.create()
tables.push(queue, "Order 1")
tables.push(queue, "Order 2")

print(tables.dequeue(queue)) -- Output: Order 1

  • As a Stack (Last-In, First-Out)

local stack = tables.create()
tables.push(stack, "Level 1")
tables.push(stack, "Level 2")

print(tables.pop(stack)) -- Output: Level 2

🔍 Advanced Search Example

local list = tables.create()
tables.push(list, "A")
tables.push(list, "B")
tables.push(list, "A")

local found, positions = tables.contains(list, "A")
if found then
print("Found 'A' at indices:")
tables.print(positions)
end

📖 API Reference

  • Function Description
  • create() Initializes a new structure.
  • push(q, val) Adds an element to the end.
  • dequeue(q) Removes and returns the first element.
  • pop(q) Removes and returns the last element.
  • peekFirst(q) Returns the first element without removing it.
  • peekLast(q) Returns the last element without removing it.
  • length(q) Returns the total number of elements.
  • contains(q, val) Returns true and a table of positions if found.
  • reverse(q) Reverses the structure in-place.
  • removeValue(q, val) Removes all occurrences of a specific value.
  • tems(q) Returns a forward iterator for for loops.
  • itemsReverse(q) Returns a backward iterator for for loops.

📄 License

This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.

For the Lua Community.