Contents

Lua Standard Library and Extensions

This is a reference for standard global Lua functions and tools that were added/changed by Renoise.

All standard Lua libraries are included in Renoise as well. You can find the full reference here: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#5

globals

Added

An iterator like ipairs, but in reverse order

examples: t = {"a", "b", "c"}
for k,v in ripairs(t) do print(k, v) end -> "3 c, 2 b, 1 a"

ripairs(table) -> [iterator function]

Return a string which lists properties and methods of class objects

objinfo(class_object) -> [string]

Recursively dumps a table and all its members to the std out (console)

rprint(table)

Dumps properties and methods of class objects (like renoise.app())

oprint(table)

Changed

Also returns a class object's type name. For all other types the standard Lua type function is used

examples: class "MyClass"; function MyClass:__init() end
print(type(MyClass)) -> "MyClass class"
print(type(MyClass())) -> "MyClass"

type(class_object or class or anything else) -> [string]

Also compares object identities of Renoise API class objects:

examples: print(rawequal(renoise.app(), renoise.app())) --> true
print(rawequal(renoise.song().track[1], renoise.song().track[1]) --> true
print(rawequal(renoise.song().track[1], renoise.song().track[2]) --> false

rawequal(obj1, obj2) -> [boolean]

debug

Added

Shortcut to remdebug.session.start(), which starts a debug session: launches the debugger controller and breaks script execution. See "Debugging.txt" in the documentation root folder for more info.

debug.start()

Shortcut to remdebug.session.stop: stops a running debug session

debug.stop()

table

Added

Create a new, or convert an exiting table to an object that uses the global 'table.XXX' functions as methods, just like strings in Lua do.

examples: t = table.create(); t:insert("a"); rprint(t) -> [1] = a;
t = table.create{1,2,3}; print(t:concat("|")); -> "1|2|3";

table.create([t]) -> [table]

Returns true when the table is empty, else false and will also work for non indexed tables

examples: t = {}; print(table.is_empty(t)); -> true;
t = {66}; print(table.is_empty(t)); -> false;
t = {["a"] = 1}; print(table.is_empty(t)); -> false;

table.is_empty(t) -> [boolean]

Count the number of items of a table, also works for non index based tables (using pairs).

examples: t = {["a"]=1, ["b"]=1}; print(table.count(t)) -> 2

table.count(t) -> [number]

Find first match of 'value' in the given table, starting from element number 'start_index'. Returns the first !key! that matches the value or nil

examples: t = {"a", "b"}; table.find(t, "a") -> 1;
t = {a=1, b=2}; table.find(t, 2) -> "b"
t = {"a", "b", "a"}; table.find(t, "a", 2) -> "3"
t = {"a", "b"}; table.find(t, "c") -> nil

table.find(t, value [,start_index]) -> [key or nil]

Return an indexed table of all keys that are used in the table

examples: t = {a="aa", b="bb"}; rprint(table.keys(t)); -> "a", "b"
t = {"a", "b"}; rprint(table.keys(t)); -> 1, 2

table.keys(t) -> [table]

Return an indexed table of all values that are used in the table

examples: t = {a="aa", b="bb"}; rprint(table.values(t)); -> "aa", "bb"
t = {"a", "b"}; rprint(table.values(t)); -> "a", "b"

table.values(t) -> [table]

Copy the metatable and all first level elements of the given table into a new table. Use table.rcopy to do a recursive copy of all elements

table.copy(t) -> [table]

Deeply copy the metatable and all elements of the given table recursively into a new table - create a clone with unique references.

table.rcopy(t) -> [table]

Recursively clears and removes all table elements

table.clear(t)

os

Added

Returns the platform the script is running on: "WINDOWS", "MACINTOSH" or "LINUX"

os.platform() -> [string]

Returns the current working dir. Will always be the scripts directory when executing a script from a file

os.currentdir() -> [string]

Returns a list of directory names (names, not full paths) for the given parent directory. Passed directory must be valid, or an error will be thrown.

os.dirnames(path) -> [table of strings]

Returns a list file names (names, not full paths) for the given parent directory. Second optional argument is a list of file extensions that should be searched for, like {".wav", ".txt"}. By default all files are matched. The passed directory must be valid, or an error will be thrown.

os.filenames(path [, {file_extensions}]) -> [table of strings]

Creates a new directory. mkdir can only create one new sub directory at the same time. If you need to create more than one sub dir, call mkdir multiple times. Returns true if the operation was successful; in case of error, it returns nil plus an error string.

os.mkdir(path) -> [boolean, error_string or nil]

Moves a file or a directory from path 'src' to 'dest'. Unlike 'os.rename' this also supports moving a file from one file system to another one. Returns true if the operation was successful; in case of error, it returns nil plus an error string.

os.move(src, dest) -> [boolean, error_string or nil]

Changed

Replaced with a temp directory and name which renoise will clean up on exit extension will be ".tmp" when not specified

os.tmpname([extension]) -> [string]

Replaced with a high precision timer (still expressed in milliseconds)

os.clock() -> [number]

Will not exit, but fire an error that os.exit() can not be called

os.exit()

io

Added

Returns true when a file, folder or link at the given path and name exists

io.exists(filename) -> [boolean]

Returns a table with status info about the file, folder or link at the given path and name, else nil the error and the error code is returned.

The returned valid stat table contains the following fields:

io.stat(filename) -> [table or (nil, error, error no)]

Change permissions of a file, folder or link. mode is a unix permission styled octal number (like 755 - WITHOUT a leading octal 0). Executable, group and others flags are ignored on windows and won't fire errors

io.chmod(filename, mode) -> [true or (nil, error, error no)]

Changed

All io functions use UTF8 as encoding for the file names and paths. UTF8 is used for LUA in the whole API as default string encoding...

math

Added

Converts a linear value to a db value. db values will be clipped to math.infdb

example: print(math.lin2db(1.0)) -> 0
print(math.lin2db(0.0)) -> -200 (math.infdb)

math.lin2db(number) -> [number]

Converts a dB value to a linear value

example: print(math.db2lin(math.infdb)) -> 0
print(math.db2lin(6.0)) -> 1.9952623149689

math.db2lin(number) -> [number]

Converts a dB value to a normalized linear fader value between 0-1 within the given dB range.

example: print(math.db2fader(-96, 0, 1)) -> 0
print(math.db2fader(-48, 6, 0)) -> 0.73879611492157

math.db2fader(min_dB, max_dB, dB_to_convert)

Converts a normalized linear mixer fader value to a db value within the given dB range.

example: print(math.fader2db(-96, 0, 1)) -> 0
print(math.fader2db(-96, 0, 0)) -> -96

math.fader2db(min_dB, max_dB, fader_value)

db values at and below this value will be treated as silent (linearly 0)

math.infdb -> [-200]

bit (added)

Integer, Bit Operations, provided by http://bitop.luajit.org/ Take a look at http://bitop.luajit.org/api.html for the complete reference and examples please...

Normalizes a number to the numeric range for bit operations and returns it. This function is usually not needed since all bit operations already normalize all of their input arguments.

bit.tobit(x) -> [number]

Converts its first argument to a hex string. The number of hex digits is given by the absolute value of the optional second argument. Positive numbers between 1 and 8 generate lowercase hex digits. Negative numbers generate uppercase hex digits. Only the least-significant 4*|n| bits are used. The default is to generate 8 lowercase hex digits.

bit.tohex(x [,n]) -> [string]

Returns the bitwise not of its argument.

bit.bnot(x) -> [number]

Returns either the bitwise or, bitwise and, or bitwise xor of all of its arguments. Note that more than two arguments are allowed.

bit.bor(x1 [,x2...]) -> [number]
bit.band(x1 [,x2...]) -> [number]
bit.bxor(x1 [,x2...]) -> [number]

Returns either the bitwise logical left-shift, bitwise logical right-shift, or bitwise arithmetic right-shift of its first argument by the number of bits given by the second argument.

bit.lshift(x, n) -> [number]
bit.rshift(x, n) -> [number]
bit.arshift(x, n) -> [number]

Returns either the bitwise left rotation, or bitwise right rotation of its first argument by the number of bits given by the second argument. Bits shifted out on one side are shifted back in on the other side.

bit.rol(x, n) -> [number]
bit.ror(x, n) -> [number]

Swaps the bytes of its argument and returns it. This can be used to convert little-endian 32 bit numbers to big-endian 32 bit numbers or vice versa.

bit.bswap(x) -> [number]