Lua table addresses

[sticklord]

Hello!

Got some questions about lua addresses, not sure how I can explain it but I'll give it a go Not gonna give my whole code though, since it's a pretty general question. I'll just jump to it:

Let's say I have an addon with 2 files. The first one looks like this, it changed profiles:

local _, ns = ...
 
function SetID(id)
     ns.settings = _G.SavedVars[id]
end
 
ns.settings = _G.SavedVars['default']

The second on wants to use the ns.settings variable:

local _, ns = ...
local x = ns.settings

Lets say i call SetID('volvo'), isn't the local variable "x" supposed to point to SavedVars['volvo'] then, or is it pointing to the old value of ns.settings? It seemed like it was the latter, but i thought it would be opposite.

Thanks for your time!

Edit // When I explained it that well to myself it makes sense to point to the old ns.setting variable, dumb me.

[SDPhantom]

Just addressing the theory of what's happening. I seriously hope you're not using that code in your actual addon.

To answer the question, it depends on what is stored at the index you're referring to. If SavedVars['volvo'] is a table, it will store a pointer to the table and anything done to it will reflect changes in both variables. If it's any basic value (nil, number, string, boolean), it will just copy the value.

Note, other value types like functions, threads, and uservalues are stored by pointers like tables, but are unmodifiable. This gives them the illusion of being passed by value like the basic types, but they are by reference.

[sticklord]

Thanks for the explanation, and no it was just an example