Lua Language Basics
Write a Hello World program and learn the basics of the Lua language.
Displaying Text
A Lua program runs from top to bottom without a main function.
print("Hello World!")
print() displays text and adds a line break. Lua accepts several string literal forms.
print("Hello World!")
print('Hello World!')
print "Hello World!"
print([[Hello World!]])
The long-bracket form preserves its contents without processing escape sequences.
Escape Sequences
Use \n for a line break.
print("Hello\nWorld!")
| Sequence | Meaning |
|---|---|
\n |
Line break |
\a |
Alert sound |
\t |
Tab |
\b |
Backspace |
\' |
Single quote |
\" |
Double quote |
\\ |
Backslash |
Long-bracket strings preserve line breaks and backslashes.
print([[Hello
World!
Hello Lua!
]])
Comments
A single-line comment starts with --.
print("Hello World!") -- Display Hello World!
Use --[[ and ]] for a multiline comment.
--[[
This is
a multiline
comment.
]]
Examples
Concatenate strings with ...
print("There are 10 types of people in this world. " ..
"Those who understand binary and those who don't. " ..
"Which one are you?")
Escape quotes or use a long-bracket string when displaying quotation marks.
print("He said, \"How dare you do to me like that!\"")
print([[He said, "How dare you do to me like that!"]])