Create a string representing the full description of a Lua table.

fullDescription.lua

function fullDescription(aTable, depth, descriptionString)
  if depth == nil then
    depth = 1
  end
  if descriptionString == nil then
    descriptionString = ""
  end
  
  local negSpace = ""
  local tabSize = 4
  for i = tabSize + 1, depth * tabSize do
    negSpace = negSpace.." "
  end

    for key, value in pairs(aTable) do
      if type(value) == "table" then
      descriptionString = descriptionString..negSpace.."|"..key.."\n"
        descriptionString = fullDescription(value, depth+1, descriptionString)
      else
        descriptionString = descriptionString..negSpace.."|"..key.." : "..tostring(value).."\n"
      end
    end

  return descriptionString
end

--[[
  local root = {
    name = "racine",
  options = {
    sound = true,
    music = false,
    difficulty = "easy"
  },
  player = {
    health = 20
  }
}

print(fullDescription(root)) -- prints:

|name : racine
|options
    |sound : true
    |music : false
    |difficulty : easy
|player
    |health : 20
--]]