Garbage collector and weak tables
Syntax#
- collectgarbage(gcrule [, gcdata]) — collect garbage using gcrule
- setmetatable(tab, {__mode = weakmode}) — set weak mode of tab to weakmode
Parameters#
| parameter | details |
|---|---|
| gcrule & gcdata | Action to gc (garbage collector): "stop" (stop collecting), "restart" (start collecting again), "collect" or nil (collect all garbage), "step" (do one collecting step), "count" (return count of used memory in KBs), "setpause" and data is number from 0% to 100% (set pause parameter of gc), "setstepmul" and data is number from 0% to 100 (set "stepmul" for gc). |
| weakmode | Type of weak table: "k" (only weak keys), "v" (only weak values), "vk" (weak keys and values) |
| ## Weak tables |
local t1, t2, t3, t4 = {}, {}, {}, {} -- Create 4 tables
local maintab = {t1, t2} -- Regular table, strong references to t1 and t2
local weaktab = setmetatable({t1, t2, t3, t4}, {__mode = 'v'}) -- table with weak references.
t1, t2, t3, t4 = nil, nil, nil, nil -- No more "strong" references to t3 and t4
print(#maintab, #weaktab) --> 2 4
collectgarbage() -- Destroy t3 and t4 and delete weak links to them.
print(#maintab, #weaktab) --> 2 2