utility.lua

-- 
--  utility.lua
--  redditgamejam-05
--  
--  Created by Jay Roberts on 2011-01-04.
--  Copyright 2011 GloryFish.org. All rights reserved.
-- 

-- Make a deep copy of a lua table
function deepcopy(object)
    local lookup_table = {}
    local function _copy(object)
        if type(object) ~= "table" then
            return object
        elseif lookup_table[object] then
            return lookup_table[object]
        end
        local new_table = {}
        lookup_table[object] = new_table
        for index, value in pairs(object) do
            new_table[_copy(index)] = _copy(value)
        end
        return setmetatable(new_table, getmetatable(object))
    end
    return _copy(object)
end

function in_table(needle, haystack)
  for _, v in pairs(haystack) do
    if v == needle then 
      return true 
    end
  end
  return false
end