Variables

Introduction

A variable is a name you can use to hold a value. In Lua, a variable can have any data type, such as a number or a string.

Assignment

Assigning a value to a variable can be done using the = operator, like so:

x = 10
word = "Hello"

Variable x now has a value of the number 10, and word has a value of the string "Hello". If we print out these variables, we should see the value they have:

print(x)     --> 10
print(word)  --> Hello

Overwritting

A variable can be changed simply by assigning another value to it:

n = 12
print(n)    --> 12

n = 24
print(n)    --> 24

Even though n was assigned to a value of 12, it was overwritten by the second assignment of 24.

Names

The name you give a variable can only contain letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, or an underscore ( _ ). A variable name cannot be a reserved keyword or start with a number. Other than that, there are no restrictions.

LETTERS = "ABC"          -- valid
x86 = 1978               -- valid
var_name = "variable"    -- valid
_ = "blank"              -- valid

if = 12                  -- NOT valid!
16th = "Lincoln"         -- NOT valid!