Whitespace

Whitespace is a type of character used to make code easier to read. Spaces, tabs, and newlines are considered whitespace characters. It is ignored (in most cases) by the Lua compiler.

General Examples

Spaces

Example

Without (most) whitespace:

number=476
disgusting_food="fried chicken"

With whitespace:

number          = 476
disgusting_food = "fried chicken"

Tabs

Tabs are used to organize scripts after:

do
then
repeat

Example

Without tabs:

if 1 == 1 then
while true do
print("One is equal to one!")
wait()
end
else
print("OMGHAX.")
print("A paradox is coming!")
end

With tabs:

if 1 == 1 then
	while true do
		print("One is equal to one!")
		wait()
	end
else
	print("OMGHAX.")
	print("A paradox is coming!")
end

Newlines

Lua will also ignore new lines in some parts of your code. However, this can lead to problems.

Example

Without newlines:

print("test")	--> test

With newlines:

print(
"test"
)	--> test

When whitespace isn't ignored

If you put extra whitespace in a string, the whitespace won't be ignored.

Example

print("Hello world!") --> Hello world!
print("Hello            world!") --> "Hello            world!"

print("Hello world!" == "Hello            world!") --> false

Ambiguities

Because Lua ignores newlines, this can lead to certain problems because the compiler is unsure about what you're trying to do, so it will warn you when you're about to run into trouble.

For a full description and example, see the error page about it.

See Also

Lua Style Guide