Question

I’m creating a tracking database, gathering information to report for hour, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, per level, per class, and per tier. As such, I have a table called tracker that consists of a subset of tables, reflecting the different reports (i.e., table["ThisHour"], etc). I’m wondering if there’s a way to consolidate all these lines that really are just adding the same bit of information. Here is the function I’m using, along with just two subtables (instead of the 8 I have listed above):

function exp_update(xp, gold, str, con, dex, wis, int, luck, bpracs, btrains, pracs, trains, qp)
local xtable = tracker[playername]["Exp"]
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Exp",xp)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Gold",gold)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusStr",str)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusCon",con)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusDex",dex)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusWis",wis)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusInt",int)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusLuck",luck)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusPracs",bpracs)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"BonusTrains",btrains)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Pracs",pracs)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Trains",trains)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Qp",qp)
addto(xtable["ThisHour"],"Quests")
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Exp",xp)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Gold",gold)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusStr",str)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusCon",con)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusDex",dex)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusWis",wis)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusInt",int)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusLuck",luck)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusPracs",bpracs)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"BonusTrains",btrains)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Pracs",pracs)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Trains",trains)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Qp",qp)
addto(xtable["ThisLevel"],"Quests")
end

As you can see, that’s already quite a number of lines for just two subtables. That’s 14 lines of code for each subtable, or, if I put them all in, 112 lines of code that I’d love to consolidate down to as little as possible.

The addto function is as defines, in case you need it:

function addto(t,k,v)
t[k] = t[k] + (v or 1)
end

Answer 1

I’d say to do this:

local function exp_update_actual(vars)
  local blocks = {"ThisHour", "ThisLevel"} --Add others as needed.
  local xtable = tracker[playername]["Exp"]

  for i, block in ipairs(blocks) do
    for key, value in pairs(vars) do
      addto(xtable[block], key, value)
    end
  end
end

function exp_update(xp, gold, str, con, dex, wis, int, luck, bpracs, btrains, pracs, trains, qp)
  local vars =
  {
    Exp = xp or false,  --nil keys won't exist. false ones will.
    Gold = gold or false,
    BonusStr = str or false,
    BonusCon = con or false,
    BonusDex = dex or false,
    BonusWis = wis or false,
    BonusInt = int or false,
    BonusLuck = luck or false,
    BonusPracs = bpracs or false,
    BonusTrains = btrains or false,
    Pracs = pracs or false,
    Trains = trains or false,
    Qp = qp or false,
    Quests = false,
  }
  exp_update_actual(vars);
end