Editing Module:TableTools/doc (section)

== sparseIpairs ==

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
TableTools.sparseIpairs(t)
</syntaxhighlight>

This is an iterator function for traversing a sparse array <code>''t''</code>. It is similar to <code>[[mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#ipairs|ipairs]]</code>, but will continue to iterate until the highest numerical key, whereas <code>ipairs</code> may stop after the first <code>nil</code> value. Any keys that are not positive integers are ignored.

Usually <code>sparseIpairs</code> is used in a generic <code>for</code> loop.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
for i, v in TableTools.sparseIpairs(t) do
   -- code block
end
</syntaxhighlight>

Note that <code>sparseIpairs</code> uses the <code>[[mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#pairs|pairs]]</code> function in its implementation. Although some table keys appear to be ignored, all table keys are accessed when it is run.