Real Documentation

Syntax

getmetafield(target: any, field: string): any | nil

Arguments

Name	Type	Description
`target`	`any`	Value whose metatable is inspected.
`field`	`string`	Metafield name to read.

Returns

Name	Type	Description
`fieldValue`	`any \| nil`	Raw metafield value when present; otherwise nil.

Description

Returns a raw metafield value from the target metatable. target may be any value, and field must be a string. The function does not call the metafield, does not invoke __index lookup, and returns nil when the metatable or field is missing.

Call it with 2 parameter(s): target, field. The argument table explains which values are required and which ones only refine the behavior.

It returns fieldValue (any | nil). Use the returns table to separate successful values from nil results and recoverable errors.

Example

Read one raw metafield value from a value's metatable.

local target = {}
local meta = {
    __index = function()
        return "fallback"
    end,
}

setrawmetatable(target, meta)

local field = getmetafield(target, "__index")
print(type(field))
print(getmetafield(target, "__newindex"))