how to assign lua variable by reference -

how can assign variable reference in lua one?

for example: want equivalent of "a = b" pointer b

background: have case have this:

local a,b,c,d,e,f,g   -- lots of variables  if answer == 1   -- stuff elsif answer == 1   -- stuff b . . . 

ps. example in below appears apparent b=a value. note: i'm using corona sdk.

a = 1 b = a = 2 print ("a/b:", a, b)  -- output: a/b: 2   1 

edit: regarding clarifed post , example, there no such thing type of reference want in lua. want variable refer variable. in lua, variables names values. that's it.

the following works because b = a leaves both a , b referring same table value:

a = { value = "testing 1,2,3" } b =  -- b , refer same table print(a.value) -- testing 1,2,3 print(b.value) -- testing 1,2,3  = { value = "duck" }  -- refers different table; b unaffected print(a.value) -- duck print(b.value) -- testing 1,2,3 

---

you can think of variable assignments in lua reference.

this technically true of tables, functions, coroutines, , strings. may well true of numbers, booleans, , nil, because these immutable types, far program concerned, there's no difference.

for example:

t = {} b = true s = "testing 1,2,3" f = function() end  t2 = t -- t2 refers same table t2.foo = "donut" print(t.foo) -- donut  s2 = s -- s2 refers same string s f2 = f -- f2 refers same function f b2 = b -- b2 contains copy of b's value, since it's immutable there's no practical difference -- on , forth -- 

---

short version: has practical implications mutable types, in lua userdata , table. in both cases, assignment copying reference, not value (i.e. not clone or copy of object, pointer assignment).