Finding an object by name

markhula

Member

Posts: 117
Joined: 2010.09

Post: #1

Mar 29, 2011 — 07:49 AM

Hi all,

I'm trying to think of an efficient method in straight C that basically achieves this:

Code:

int find_object(lua_State *L)

{

    const char *find=lua_tostring(L,1);

    OBJECT_DEF *obj;

    obj = objects_head;

    while( obj != NULL)

    {

        if (!strcmp(obj->name,find))

        {

            lua_pushlightuserdata(L, obj);

            return 1;

        }

        obj=obj->next;

    }    

    lua_pushnumber(L,0);

    return 0;

}

As you can see I have to go through an entire loop to 'find' an object.
Though ok performance wise now, will become an issue later :-)
I *guess* i really want a method where I don't iterate over all objects each frame, and also be able to deal with 'killed' objects (i.e. name removal).
Any suggestions?;

Cheers

OneSadCookie

Luminary

Posts: 5,131
Joined: 2002.04

Post: #2

Mar 29, 2011 — 07:59 AM

Since you're using lua anyway, use a lua table as a hashtable.

markhula

Member

Posts: 117
Joined: 2010.09

Post: #3

Mar 29, 2011 — 08:08 AM

Won't that be slow though? (how do I do that anyway???).
I assumed some method where I call a 'c' func would be better.

But out of interest how would I achieve this in Lua?

thanks

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