Remarks#

Booleans, truth, and falsity are straightforward in Lua. To review:

1. There is a boolean type with exactly two values: true and false.
2. In a conditional context (if, elseif, while, until), a boolean is not required. Any expression can be used.
3. In a conditional context, false and nil count as false, and everything else counts as true.
4. Although 3 already implies this: if you’re coming from other languages, remember that 0 and the empty string count as true in conditional contexts in Lua.

The boolean type

Booleans and other values

When dealing with lua it is important to differentiate between the boolean values true and false and values that evaluate to true or false.

There are only two values in lua that evaluate to false: nil and false, while everything else, including the numerical 0 evaluate to true.

Some examples of what this means:

if 0 then print("0 is true") end --> this will print "true"
if (2 == 3) then print("true") else print("false") end --> this prints "false"
if (2 == 3) == false then print("true") end --> this prints "true"
if (2 == 3) == nil then else print("false") end
--> prints false, because even if nil and false both evaluate to false,
--> they are still different things.

Logical Operations

Logical operators in lua don’t necessarily return boolean values:

and will return the second value if the first value evaluates to true;

or returns the second value if the first value evaluates to false;

This makes it possible to simulate the ternary operator, just like in other languages:

local var = false and 20 or 30 --> returns 30
local var = true and 20 or 30 --> returns 20
-- in C: false ? 20 : 30

This can also be used to initialize tables if they don’t exist

tab = tab or {} -- if tab already exists, nothing happens

or to avoid using if statements, making the code easier to read

print(debug and "there has been an error") -- prints "false" line if debug is false
debug and print("there has been an error") -- does nothing if debug is false
-- as you can see, the second way is preferable, because it does not output
-- anything if the condition is not met, but it is still possible.
-- also, note that the second expression returns false if debug is false,
-- and whatever print() returns if debug is true (in this case, print returns nil)

Checking if variables are defined

One can also easily check if a variable exists (if it is defined), since non-existant variables return nil, which evaluates to false.

local tab_1, tab_2 = {}
if tab_1 then print("table 1 exists") end --> prints "table 1 exists"
if tab_2 then print("table 2 exists") end --> prints nothing

The only case where this does not apply is when a variable stores the value false, in which case it technically exists but still evaluates to false. Because of this, it is a bad design to create functions which return false and nil depending on the state or input. We can still check however whether we have a nil or a false:

if nil == nil then print("A nil is present") else print("A nil is not present") end
if false == nil then print("A nil is present") else print("A nil is not present") end
-- The output of these calls are:
-- A nil is present!
-- A nil is not present

Conditional contexts

Conditional contexts in Lua (if, elseif, while, until) do not require a boolean. Like many languages, any Lua value can appear in a condition. The rules for evaluation are simple:

1. false and nil count as false.

2. Everything else counts as true.

   if 1 then
     print("Numbers work.")
   end
   if 0 then
     print("Even 0 is true")
   end
   
   if "strings work" then
     print("Strings work.")
   end
   if "" then
     print("Even the empty string is true.")
   end

Logical Operators

In Lua, booleans can be manipulated through logical operators. These operators include not, and, and or.

In simple expressions, the results are fairly straightforward:

print(not true) --> false
print(not false) --> true
print(true or false) --> true
print(false and true) --> false

Order of Precedence

The order of precedence is similar to the math operators unary -, * and +:

• not
• then and
• then or

This can lead to complex expressions:

print(true and false or not false and not true)
print( (true and false) or ((not false) and (not true)) )
    --> these are equivalent, and both evaluate to false

Short-cut Evaluation

The operators and and or might only be evaluated using the first operand, provided the second is unnecessary:

function a()
    print("a() was called")
    return true
end

function b()
    print("b() was called")
    return false
end

print(a() or b())
    --> a() was called
    --> true
    --  nothing else
print(b() and a())
    --> b() was called
    --> false
    --  nothing else
print(a() and b())
    --> a() was called
    --> b() was called
    --> false

Idiomatic conditional operator

Due to the precedence of the logical operators, the ability for short-cut evaluation and the evaluation of non-false and non-nil values as true, an idiomatic conditional operator is available in Lua:

function a()
    print("a() was called")
    return false
end
function b()
    print("b() was called")
    return true
end
function c()
    print("c() was called")
    return 7
end

print(a() and b() or c())
    --> a() was called
    --> c() was called
    --> 7
    
print(b() and c() or a())
    --> b() was called
    --> c() was called
    --> 7

Also, due to the nature of the x and a or b structure, a will never be returned if it evaluates to false, this conditional will then always return b no matter what x is.

print(true and false or 1)  -- outputs 1

Truth tables

Logical operators in Lua don’t “return” boolean, but one of their arguments. Using nil for false and numbers for true, here’s how they behave.

print(nil and nil)       -- nil
print(nil and 2)         -- nil
print(1 and nil)         -- nil
print(1 and 2)           -- 2

print(nil or nil)        -- nil
print(nil or 2)          -- 2
print(1 or nil)          -- 1
print(1 or 2)            -- 1

As you can see, Lua will always return the first value that makes the check fail or succeed. Here’s the truth tables showing that.

  x  |  y  || and            x  |  y  || or
------------------         ------------------
false|false||  x           false|false||  y   
false|true ||  x           false|true ||  y   
true |false||  y           true |false||  x   
true |true ||  y           true |true ||  x

For those who need it, here’s two function representing these logical operators.

function exampleAnd(value1, value2)
  if value1 then
    return value2
  end
  return value1
end

function exampleOr(value1, value2)
  if value1 then
    return value1
  end
  return value2
end

Emulating Ternary Operator with ‘and’ ‘or’ logical operators.

In lua, the logical operators and and or returns one of the operands as the result instead of a boolean result. As a consequence, this mechanism can be exploited to emulate the behavior of the ternary operator despite lua not having a ‘real’ ternary operator in the language.

Syntax

condition and truthy_expr or falsey_expr

Use in variable assignment/initialization

local drink = (fruit == "apple") and "apple juice" or "water"

Use in table constructor

local menu =
{
  meal  = vegan and "carrot" or "steak",
  drink = vegan and "tea"    or "chicken soup"
}

Use as function argument

print(age > 18 and "beer" or "fruit punch")

Use in return statement

function get_gradestring(student)
  return student.grade > 60 and "pass" or "fail"
end

Caveat

There are situations where this mechanism doesn’t have the desired behavior. Consider this case

local var = true and false or "should not happen"

In a ‘real’ ternary operator, the expected value of var is false. In lua, however, the and evaluation ‘falls through’ because the second operand is falsey. As a result var ends up with should not happen instead.

Two possible workarounds to this problem, refactor this expression so the middle operand isn’t falsey. eg.

local var = not true and "should not happen" or false

or alternatively, use the classical if then else construct.