Editing Module:Buffer/doc (section)

====Buffer object====
{{luaself|\|args=sep, i, j}}
{{hatnote|See also {{luaself|:_str|plain=y}} for advanced string conversion.}}

Get a Buffer as a {{luaref|string||y}} via a function call on the Buffer ''object'' (as opposed to [[#require'Module:Buffer'|a call on the ''module'']]). This is basically shorthand for {{luaref|table.concat|args=Buffer, sep, i, j}}, or, with no args, {{luaref|tostring|args=Buffer}}. However, if this Buffer is in [[#raw|raw mode]]<ref group="note" name="raw" />  or contains at least one {{luaref|sequence|non-sequential|y}} index, this reconstructs the Buffer by creating a new table, coercing it contents to strings and appending them sequentially to the temporary "buffer" via <code>new-{{luaself|:_all|plain=yes|args=Buffer}}</code> (or a similar process).

Unconventionally, any {{luaref|string||y}}-type position passed as <code>i</code> or <code>j</code> are treated as ''relative to length''; that is, {{luaself|\|args='-', -1, '-3'}} is equivalent to {{luaself|\|args='-', -1, #Buffer - 3}} (which obviates the need to {{luaref|Local variable declarations|declare a local|y}} ''Buffer'' just to use the {{luaref|Length operator|length operator|y}}). Moreover, unlike table.concat, this automatically adjusts numerical<ref group="note">Later sections may describe values as being ''numerical'' or ''numeric''. Though perfect synonyms in normal usage, these adjectives are not interchangeable here. For the purposes of documenting Module:Buffer, ''numerical'' includes both actual number values and string values which {{luaref|tonumber|args=value}} does not return nil (and often involves Buffer-style length relativity); ''numeric'' describes values of number type only.</ref> positions to be within the range of the lowest and greatest indicies.

Note you may append a Buffer object without tostring coercion to an {{luaref|HTML library|mw.html|y}} object via {{luaref|mw.html:node}} (though not mw.html:wikitext because of type checking).

=====Buffer.last_concat=====
When strung without a ([[#valid|valid]]) <code>sep</code>, the result is cached at <code>Buffer.last_concat</code>. Until purged, future calls to return that Buffer as a string will return this index instead.<ref group="note">Using {{luaself|:_var|plain=y}} prevents future caching on all Buffers, though Buffers which already unmodified Buffers will continue to return their cached version</ref>

This should clear automatically whenever a Buffer object function changes the contents of a Buffer. You may manually purge the cache by setting this key to nil, as well as by passing nothing to {{luaself|:_cc|args=()}}.