Lua table/list string cast/concat -

is there method more efficient simpler anonymous function use, when casting list (a table 1 level) string?

why asking this? have heard string concatenation on , on in lua memory inefficient because lua strings immutable objects have thrown garbage collector once used.

so anonymous function usage mean this:

local resources = {     ["bread"] = 20,     ["meat"] = 5,     ["something"] = 99 };  local function getthetext()     return "resources:\n"..         ( (function()              local s = "";              k, v in pairs(resources)                  s = s.."\n\t"..k..": "..v.." units.";              end              return s;         )())..         "\nmore awesome info...";    end end 

you know, time use a metafunction tostring on table because not going change, if use other anonymous tables not have option.

anyway love anonymous usage of functions so, not problem me.

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is there more efficient not require declaring functions? , more or less efficient using metamethod?

local function getthetext()     local temp = {"resources:"}     k,v in pairs(resources)         temp[#temp + 1] = "\t"..k..": "..v.." units."      end      temp[#temp + 1] = "more awesome info..."      return table.concat(temp, "\n") end 

table.concat build strings efficiently , use less memory concatenating via s = s ...

this issue covered in pil