When the input is a list and the language doesn't support that: what to do?

Question

I'll use this challenge as an example. It says "Input will be a list of [...]" and I would like to code that challenge in Lua.

The problem here is, Lua doesn't accept lists as input, only strings (and maybe numbers since it has implicit coercion). There are two solutions:

• I can write the list as a string and deserialize it no problem, but should I count this process in my byte count? Or there would be no problem in deserializing and passing it to the function/rest of the program as a list (we call lists 'tables' in Lua)?
• I can pass each element on the list as different arguments, because then Lua would let me create a list (table) from these arguments.

I hope my question is clear. If there's already an answer for that I'm sorry, but I couldn't find.

Answer 1

Take input through any reasonable format, as allowed by the challenge

Lua is far from the only language with this problem; many langs only give access to STDIN and arguments as raw strings, not doing any parsing at all. Some methods of inputting an array include:

• Putting each item on its own line.
• Formatting the list in array syntax and using eval or similar.
• Asking for one item at a time, with a sentinal value such as the empty string to mark end of input.

I don't know that I've seen an answer taking each item as a separate argument, but it seems fairly similar to the last option, and I would consider it a reasonable method. You'll need to watch out for challenges with stricter input requirements, however.

Also, parsing the input is part of the fundamental challenge of golfing—take the input you're given and apply transformations to it to give the desired output, all with as little code as possible. No bytes need to be taken off an answer just because the language has an inconvenient input system; in some esoteric languages, such as Brainf***, this can be half the challenge.