Editing Module:Arguments/doc (section)

== Basic use ==

First, you need to load the module. It contains one function, named <code>getArgs</code>.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local getArgs = require('Module:Arguments').getArgs
</syntaxhighlight>

In the most basic scenario, you can use getArgs inside your main function. The variable <code>args</code> is a table containing the arguments from #invoke. (See below for details.)

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local getArgs = require('Module:Arguments').getArgs
local p = {}

function p.main(frame)
	local args = getArgs(frame)
	-- Main module code goes here.
end

return p
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Recommended practice ===
However, the recommended practice is to use a separate function as the entry point from <code>#invoke</code> just for processing the arguments. This allows other Lua modules to call your core logic directly, improving performance by avoiding the overhead of interacting with the <code>frame</code> object.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local getArgs = require('Module:Arguments').getArgs
local p = {}

function p.main(frame)
	local args = getArgs(frame)
	return p._main(args)
end

function p._main(args)
	-- Main module code goes here.
end

return p
</syntaxhighlight>

The way this is called from a template is <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Example|main}}</nowiki></code> (optionally with some parameters like <code><nowiki>{{#invoke:Example|main|arg1=value1|arg2=value2}}</nowiki></code>), and the way this is called from a module is <syntaxhighlight lang=lua inline>require('Module:Example')._main({arg1 = 'value1', arg2 = value2, 'spaced arg3' = 'value3'})</syntaxhighlight>. What this second one does is construct a table with the arguments in it, then gives that table to the p._main(args) function, which uses it natively.

=== Multiple functions ===
If you want multiple functions to use the arguments, and you also want them to be accessible from #invoke, you can use a wrapper function.

<syntaxhighlight lang="lua">
local getArgs = require('Module:Arguments').getArgs

local p = {}

local function makeInvokeFunc(funcName)
	return function (frame)
		local args = getArgs(frame)
		return p[funcName](args)
	end
end

p.func1 = makeInvokeFunc('_func1')

function p._func1(args)
	-- Code for the first function goes here.
end

p.func2 = makeInvokeFunc('_func2')

function p._func2(args)
	-- Code for the second function goes here.
end

return p
</syntaxhighlight>