The break statement is used to exit a loop.

a = 0

while true do

a = a+1

if a==10 then 

break

end

end

print(a)

Output:

10

Printing out tables is not as simple as printing a normal variable. To print a table we must first get each element in the table by itself. We do this by using the "pairs" keyword.

a={1,2,3,4,"five","elephant","mouse"}

for i,v in pairs(a) do print(i,v) end

Output:

1     1

2     2

3     3

4     4

5     five

6     elephant

7     mouse

The for statement allows you to repeat the same task for a predefined amount of iterations.

Count from 1 to 4 in intervals of 1

for a=1,4 do io.write(a) end

print()

Output:

1234

Count from 1 to 6 in intervals of 3

for a=1,6,3 do io.write(a) end

print()

Output:

14

Sequential iteration form

for key,value in pairs({1,2,3,4}) do print(key,value) end

Output:

1     1

2     2

3     3

4     4

The while statement allows you to repeat a task until a certain condition is met.

a=1

--this is a comment

while a~= 5 do  -- Lua uses ~= to mean not equal 

a=a+1

io.write(a.." ")

end

Output:

2 3 4 5

The following words are all reserved for internal functions in Lua.

• and, 
• break, 
• do, 
• else, 
• elseif, 
• end, 
• false, 
• for, 
• function, 
• if, 
• in, 
• local, 
• nil, 
• not, 
• or, 
• repeat, 
• return, 
• pairs,
• then,
• true, 
• until, 
• while

These words cannot be used for variable names, but Lua is case sensitive, so 'and' is reserved and can't be a variable, but 'aND, aNd, AND, anD, AnD, And, ANd' are not reserved and can be used as variables.