The length of a table codice_22 is defined to be any integer index codice_23 such that <code>tis not codice_13 and codice_25 is codice_13; moreover, if codice_22 is codice_13, codice_23 can be zero. For a regular array, with non-nil values from 1 to a given codice_23, its length is exactly that codice_23, the index of its last value. If the array has "holes" (that is, nil values between other non-nil values), then codice_32 can be any of the indices that directly precedes a codice_13 value (that is, it may consider any such nil value as the end of the array).