Why do i need pairs or ipairs?

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

I mean, why do i need pairs if i can write
“for i, v in table” without anything else?

3 Likes
#3

I’m pretty sure ipairs() is faster, even if marginally

#4

Using nothing is faster than both theres a post debunking this

1 Like
#5

do you mind if i see this post in question

#6

ipairs loops through the table in numerical order. Also if Ipairs encounters a nil value in the table it will stop looping through it.

This solution can also explain alot

1 Like
#7

Yeah, just do not use those because luau automatically does it now

#8

ipairs is used to loop through arrays, pairs is used to loop through arrays and dictionaries

while nothing is uhhhh, nothing!

#9

There’s not really much of a use for pairs now. ipairs is used for number-index tables, like the person above me said, but pairs will iterate over any and all keys in a table. pairs is slower than ipairs and other iterators like next. Using either no iterator or next is faster, I’d recommend next because you also have the option to start part-way through the table.

2 Likes
#10

Considering all this and the fact that the pairs is a little difficult to understand, I think I should use “nothing”.

1 Like
#11

If you use the “nothing” syntax but (for some reason) want to change how the iteration runs, you can change the __iter() metamethod of a table and set it as the metatable. Just thought I’d put that out there.

2 Likes
#12

Did Roblox add this or is it in standard Lua?(I am talking about “nothing” method)

1 Like
#13

Standard Lua only allows pairs, ipairs, or the next iterator syntax. Other syntax errors in standard Lua. I guess Luau added this method but still kept the pairs iterator inherited from Lua 5.1 :man_shrugging: .

Edit: You can use the “nothing” syntax in standard Lua if you modify the table’s __iter() metamethod to return an iterator. This is because it provides an iterator function to the iteration, which is required.

1 Like
#14

Ipairs is not faster there was a post about this in the devforum I think Ipairs has a speed of like 5 seconds while no pairs which has been recently updated by roblox like this year or last has a speed of like 3 seconds there’s a test on this but can’t seem to find the post.

#15

it’s quite simple:

for i, v in table do
print(v)
end
1 Like
#16

if they took 3 and 5 seconds to iterate that would be worrying. I tested it and it took about 0.002 for ipairs and something like 0.05 for pairs.

#17

Sorry my mistake yuh this timers are correct for both pairs and ipairs but no pairs is faster and more efficient.

#18

I’m pretty sure pairs is not faster, I don’t see why it would be anyway. pairs was the slowest when I tested, with ipairs being second slowest, and next and no iterator being the fastest.

#19

Not true, if the table is an array both ipairs and pairs will loop through in order.

The only time iterating through pairs is unordered is if it’s a dictionairy, and you wouldn’t be able to use ipairs on the dictionairy.

#20

My bad thought it did, but ipairs does stop when reaching a nil value and it will not continue

#21

It’s a common misconception, I used to think that too when I was newer to scripting. Just wanted to clear it up.

1 Like