Serializing Tables - Recursive

[Hiruty]

Hey, I'm currently having a problem with my serialization script that should store a table, and a table of items finally, each item is a table that contains information.

function I'm using to serialize my tables. (It is basic I know, however, I just need something basic for this task.)

function SerializeTable(tTable, bIsRec)
		
		local sString = "\n{"
		
		if bIsRec then sString = "" end

		for index, value in pairs(tTable) do
			if 	type(value) == "number" then
				sString = sString .. index .. " = " .. value .. ","
				
			elseif	type(value) == "string" then
				sString = sString .. index .. " = '" .. value .. "',"
				
			elseif  type(value) == "table" then
				local newString = SerializeTable(value, true)
				
				if type(index) == "number" then
					sString = sString .. "\n t".. index .. " = { " .. newString .. ","
				else
					sString = sString .. index .. " = { " .. newString .. ","
				end
			end
		end
		sString = sString .. "}"
		return sString
	end

This usually outputs a file like this

local tInventory = 
{iSlots = 12,tItems = { 
 t1 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t2 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t3 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t4 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t5 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t6 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t7 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t8 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t9 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},
 t10 = { sName = 'Base Item',iCurStack = 3,ID = 1,iMaxStack = 3,},},iSpeedPen = 0,iCurItems = 10,sName = 'Small Backpack',}

Now to load the .txt file I use this function

function LoadInventory(ply)
		
		-- Remove : from the SteamID and run the file saved
		local steamID 		= string.gsub(string.sub(ply:SteamID(),7), ":", "_")
		local tInven 		= file.Read(INVEN_DIR..steamID..".txt")
		
		if tInven == nil then return nil end
		
		-- tInventory is defined when tInven is run
		CompileString(tInven, "Test")
		PrintTable(tInventory)
		return tInventory
		
	end

This works for the most part HOWEVER, it will not return the tables within tItems and returns nothing at all. The confusing part is, if I do copy and paste this file into a lua file, it will run perfectly.

[>>oubliet]

Where is tInventory set to anything?

Shouldn't it be tInventory = CompileString()?

Also you don't seem to be serializing anything that current systems can't, you could save tables as JSON or Valves file format.

[url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/Global/CompileString]CompileString[/url]
[url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/util/KeyValuesToTable]util.KeyValuesToTable[/url]
[url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/util/TableToKeyValues]util.TableToKeyValues[/url]
[url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/util/TableToJSON]util.TableToJSON[/url]
[url=http://wiki.garrysmod.com/page/util/JSONToTable]util.JSONToTable[/url]

[Hiruty]

sorry, I do declare the variable earlier on in the serialization proccess.

I'll try out JSON this afternoon, didnt know there was a readily available alternative to GLON.