“Error: attempt to call a nil value” when trying to call lua script

Question

I'm trying to call a lua function from C++ and I keep getting the error message "Error: attempt to call a nil value".

The lua function creates a C++ object and then calls one of its methods, the glue code has been generated with tolua++. When calling the lua function I pass in a lua_State pointer, as the C++ class needs one for its constructor, which the lua function hands to it.

But as far as I can tell it never gets that far, it simply doesn't run the script at all. At least the error doesn't reference any line numbers in the script.

Here is the C++ code calling the function:

int main()
{

lua_State *lState;

lState = luaL_newstate(); //new lua state
tolua_TestClass_open (lState); //open libs for TestClass

int iStatus = luaL_loadfile( lState, "lua1.lua" ); //load script
if (iStatus)
{
    std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
    return 1;
}

iStatus = lua_pcall( lState, 0, 0, 0); //initialise the lua script
if( iStatus )
{
    std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
    return 1;
}

lua_getglobal( lState, "lua1Function" ); //starting the function call
lua_pushlightuserdata (lState, lState); //lState is also being passed in as a parameter

iStatus = lua_pcall( lState, 1, 0, 0 ); //calling on this lua state with 1 argument expecting 0 outputs
if( iStatus ) //error checking
{
    std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
    return 1;
}

return 1;
}

Here is the lua script:

function lua1Function(lstate)
tclass = TestClass:new();
tclass:method1();
tclass:method3();
end

I'm fairly sure it's not something as simple as forgetting to do:

tclass = TestClass:new(lstate);

As the glue code seems to indicate I don't need to do that, here:

/* method: new of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
     !tolua_isusertable(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,2,&tolua_err)
 )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  lua_State* tolua_var_1 =  tolua_S; //seems to know I want the lua_State by default,
//usually it will pop a usertype or luanumber or whatever off the stack,
//depending on the parameter
  {
   TestClass* tolua_ret = (TestClass*)  Mtolua_new((TestClass)(tolua_var_1));
    tolua_pushusertype(tolua_S,(void*)tolua_ret,"TestClass");
  }
 }
 return 1;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'new'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

And the error message THAT produces seems to confirm my theory: "error in function 'new'. argument #2 is 'userdata'; '[no object]' expected." ie it wasn't expecting/doesn't need me to pass in that lua_State pointer

I'm at a loss, I have a lot of trouble finding solutions to problems with lua because tutorials/documentation seem to be pretty thin on the ground where tolua++ is concerned, but it's too late to change binding library now.

Any help would be much appreciated, I hope I've provided enough to diagnose the problem.

EDIT: Here's my TestClass.cpp code (you can probably ignore method1, 2 and 3 as they don't seem to be called because of this error):

#include "TestClass.h"
#include <iostream>

TestClass::TestClass(lua_State *L)
{
    num = NULL;
    lState = L;
}

int TestClass::method1()
{
    int iStatus = luaL_loadfile( lState, "lua2.lua" );
    if (iStatus)
    {
        std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
        return 1;
    }

    iStatus = lua_pcall( lState, 0, 0, 0); //this might be to initialise the lua script
    if( iStatus )
    {
        std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
        return 1;
    }

    ///////////call lua function, passing on self pointer onto the stack////////////////

    lua_getglobal( lState, "lua2Function" );
    tolua_pushusertype(lState, this, "TestClass");

    iStatus = lua_pcall( lState, 1, 1, 0 );
    if( iStatus ) //error checking
    {
        std::cout << "Error: " << lua_tostring( lState, -1 );
        return 1;
    }

    ///////////lua function returns an int, return it////////////
    num = lua_tointeger( lState, -1 );

    return 0;
}

int TestClass::method2(int i)
{
    i += 2;
    return i;
}

void TestClass::method3()
{
    std::cout << (char)num << std::endl;
}

/*
** Lua binding: TestClass
** Generated automatically by tolua++-1.0.92 on 04/05/11 17:59:24.
*/

#ifndef __cplusplus
#include "stdlib.h"
#endif
#include "string.h"

#include "tolua++.h"


/* function to release collected object via destructor */
#ifdef __cplusplus

static int tolua_collect_TestClass (lua_State* tolua_S)
{
 TestClass* self = (TestClass*) tolua_tousertype(tolua_S,1,0);
    Mtolua_delete(self);
    return 0;
}
#endif


/* function to register type */
static void tolua_reg_types (lua_State* tolua_S)
{
 tolua_usertype(tolua_S,"TestClass");
}

/* method: new of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
     !tolua_isusertable(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,2,&tolua_err)
 )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  lua_State* tolua_var_1 =  tolua_S;
  {
   TestClass* tolua_ret = (TestClass*)  Mtolua_new((TestClass)(tolua_var_1));
    tolua_pushusertype(tolua_S,(void*)tolua_ret,"TestClass");
  }
 }
 return 1;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'new'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

/* method: new_local of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00_local
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00_local(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
     !tolua_isusertable(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,2,&tolua_err)
 )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  lua_State* tolua_var_1 =  tolua_S;
  {
   TestClass* tolua_ret = (TestClass*)  Mtolua_new((TestClass)(tolua_var_1));
    tolua_pushusertype(tolua_S,(void*)tolua_ret,"TestClass");
    tolua_register_gc(tolua_S,lua_gettop(tolua_S));
  }
 }
 return 1;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'new'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

/* method: method1 of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method100
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method100(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
     !tolua_isusertype(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,2,&tolua_err)
 )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  TestClass* self = (TestClass*)  tolua_tousertype(tolua_S,1,0);
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
  if (!self) tolua_error(tolua_S,"invalid 'self' in function 'method1'", NULL);
#endif
  {
   int tolua_ret = (int)  self->method1();
   tolua_pushnumber(tolua_S,(lua_Number)tolua_ret);
  }
 }
 return 1;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'method1'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

/* method: method2 of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method200
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method200(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
     !tolua_isusertype(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnumber(tolua_S,2,0,&tolua_err) ||
     !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,3,&tolua_err)
 )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  TestClass* self = (TestClass*)  tolua_tousertype(tolua_S,1,0);
  int tolua_var_2 = ((int)  tolua_tonumber(tolua_S,2,0));
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
  if (!self) tolua_error(tolua_S,"invalid 'self' in function 'method2'", NULL);
#endif
  {
   int tolua_ret = (int)  self->method2(tolua_var_2);
   tolua_pushnumber(tolua_S,(lua_Number)tolua_ret);
  }
 }
 return 1;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'method2'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

/* method: method3 of class  TestClass */
#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE_tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method300
static int tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method300(lua_State* tolua_S)
{
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_Error tolua_err;
 if (
   !tolua_isusertype(tolua_S,1,"TestClass",0,&tolua_err) ||
   !tolua_isnoobj(tolua_S,2,&tolua_err)
     )
  goto tolua_lerror;
 else
#endif
 {
  TestClass* self = (TestClass*)  tolua_tousertype(tolua_S,1,0);
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
  if (!self) tolua_error(tolua_S,"invalid 'self' in function 'method3'", NULL);
#endif
  {
   self->method3();
  }
 }
 return 0;
#ifndef TOLUA_RELEASE
 tolua_lerror:
 tolua_error(tolua_S,"#ferror in function 'method3'.",&tolua_err);
 return 0;
#endif
}
#endif //#ifndef TOLUA_DISABLE

/* Open function */
TOLUA_API int tolua_TestClass_open (lua_State* tolua_S)
{
 tolua_open(tolua_S);
 tolua_reg_types(tolua_S);
 tolua_module(tolua_S,NULL,0);
 tolua_beginmodule(tolua_S,NULL);
  #ifdef __cplusplus
  tolua_cclass(tolua_S,"TestClass","TestClass","",tolua_collect_TestClass);
  #else
  tolua_cclass(tolua_S,"TestClass","TestClass","",NULL);
  #endif
  tolua_beginmodule(tolua_S,"TestClass");
   tolua_function(tolua_S,"new",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00);
   tolua_function(tolua_S,"new_local",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00_local);
   tolua_function(tolua_S,".call",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_new00_local);
   tolua_function(tolua_S,"method1",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method100);
   tolua_function(tolua_S,"method2",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method200);
   tolua_function(tolua_S,"method3",tolua_TestClass_TestClass_method300);
  tolua_endmodule(tolua_S);
 tolua_endmodule(tolua_S);
 return 1;
}


#if defined(LUA_VERSION_NUM) && LUA_VERSION_NUM >= 501
 TOLUA_API int luaopen_TestClass (lua_State* tolua_S) {
 return tolua_TestClass_open(tolua_S);
};
#endif

Answer 1

It turns out the only problem was that "lua2Function" was spelt with a lower-case F in the script. The code as I've pasted it actually works fine. How thoroughly embarrassing!

I guess I've learnt that tolua++ definitely DOES take care of passing lua_State pointers into methods, at least.

Answer 2

The Lua state is never explicitly handled by Lua code- it is implicit. Any C++ function called by Lua does not need to explicitly have the state passed in- it gets it as it's first argument which is always passed by Lua, regardless of the other arguments, because it's impossible to interact with Lua in any way without the lua_State* . The only reason to do this would be if you have some kind of meta-state, or, if you're doing things with Lua's co-operative co-routines.

The global function seems simple enough and not likely the source of error. You need to print the contents of TestClass to verify that it has the contents expected, and if not, then this is a binding library specific problem and you will have to dig into their internals, because that code looks to me like the most likely problem is that TestClass the table does not have what you're expecting for it to have.