memory efficiency?

[rophy]

The mod I'm currently working on will pass a table with a "type" variable to a function. the function will check the "type" to see what variables are contained in the table.

I think that if 'type' is numbeirc rather than string, it should result in less memory consumed. But does it actually makes a difference? Or the impact is so neglible that I can just use string on 'type' so that it's more human readable?

What I meant was:


COMBAT_HIT = 103;
if result.type == COMBAT_HIT then bla bla bla

VS

if result.type == "COMBAT_HIT" then bla bla bla

Do they make a difference on memory?, if this is called frequently?

I did make a simple test myself, and it seems that the difference is negliable?

[Iriel]

If you're always dealing with constants (i.e. you're not dynamically composing the string from something else) then they're essentially equivalent. Lua uses interned strings, so all instances of "COMBAT_HIT" are stored as references to the same common string object. A string comparison ends up being essentially a pointer comparison, just as fast as a number comparison.