Up until now, we have only been working with basic Lua types and functions. Lua's C API also allows us to work with tables. A new table can be created with the lua_newtable (lua_State*) function. This function returns nothing and only takes the Lua state as an argument. The lua_newtable function will create an empty table and leave it on top of the stack. Once the table is on the stack, it's up to you to assign it to a variable. For example, the following code creates a table named "vector" that has global scope:
lua_newtable(L);
lua_setglobal(L, "vector");
The C API for working with tables can get a little verbose. There are a few libraries that address this and aim to reduce the amount of code you have to actually type. One such library, Lua Bridge, will be discussed in Chapter 7, Lua Bridge.
