Luban feature list

Full built-in capability overview. For usage details, follow the linked chapters.

Complete type system

• Built-in primitives: bool, byte, short, int, long, float, double, string, text, datetime
• Containers: array, list, set, map
• Custom enums and beans: unlimited inheritance and polymorphism for complex GamePlay data
• Nullable types: T? for all types except containers

See Types and Polymorphism.

Enhanced Excel formats

• bool: true/false/1/0/yes-no variants
• Enums: name, alias, or integer; flags enums support A|B and column-constraint mode
• Nullable: e.g. int? with 5 or null
• datetime with --timeZone and localized time
• Struct fields: multi-column (merge or CSV [{name}/{name}]), single-cell sep, or nested in larger configs
• sep splitting: e.g. Vec3 in one cell
• Polymorphism: e.g. Circle,5 or Rectangle,3,4
• Multi-row struct lists: field name *name
• Multi-level headers: column constraints for deep structures

See Excel basics, Nested structures, sep and stream.

Rich source file types

• Excel family: csv, xls, xlsx, xlsm; sheet@file.xlsx for a single sheet
• JSON: one or many records per file (*@file.json); a.b.c@file.json for nested fields
• Lua: requires return; lists with *@
• XML / YAML
• Directory: recursive walk; non-Excel defaults to one record per file; mixed formats allowed
• Multiple inputs per table: many-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many

See Non-Excel sources and Import modules.

Export data formats

Export format is decoupled from source data. Whether sources are excel, lua, xml, json, or mixed, export uses a unified format.

Format	Notes
bin	Compact binary, fast load
json / json2	json map as [[k,v]]; json2 as {k:v}
lua / xml / yaml / bson / msgpack	Corresponding formats
protobuf2/3 (json + bin)	PB serialization
flatbuffers-json	FlatBuffers JSON
text-list	Export all text keys

Full list: Built-in codeTarget / dataTarget.

Table- and field-level groups

Custom group types; export subsets of tables or fields for client/server/editor. See groups and multi-target.

Record tags

Tag each record; e.g. test only in test builds; filter with --excludeTag on release. ## permanently comments a row. See tags.

Data validation

Validator	Purpose
Built-in constraints	Types, nullability, containers
ref	Table reference validity
path	Asset path validity (Unity, etc.)
range	Numeric range
size	Fixed or ranged container length
set	Value must be in a set
regex	String must match pattern
! (not default)	Must not be type default
index	Unique index on a field in struct lists
text	Valid localization key

See Validators.

Table modes

mode	Notes
one	Singleton
map	Key-value table
list	List; joint key a+b or independent indexes a,b

See Excel Schema.

Localization

• Localized time: datetime converted to UTC by timezone
• text type: validate l10n keys; configure via l10n.provider xargs

See L10N.

External type mapping (TypeMapper)

Map config enums / beans to existing project types (e.g. UnityEngine.Vector3, UnityEngine.AudioType). Matched by -t / -c; mainly C# today. See TypeMapper.

Supported game development languages

Language	Approx. version
C++	11+
C#	.NET Framework 2+ / .NET Core 2+
Java	1.6+
Go	1.10+
Lua	5.1+
TypeScript	3.0+
Python	2.7+ / 3.0+
GDScript	4.0+
PHP, Dart, JavaScript, Rust	—

Engines, hot reload, and platforms

• Unity + C# / HybridCLR / ToLua / XLua / ILRuntime
• Unreal + C++ / UnLua / sluaunreal / Puerts
• Cocos2d-x + Lua / TypeScript
• Godot + GDScript
• WeChat mini programs and other JS mini-program platforms
• Other Lua/JS-capable engines and platforms

Samples: luban_examples.

Performance and cross-platform

• Generation speed: seconds even on large projects
• Runtime: .NET on Windows, Linux, macOS

Extensible architecture

Loaders, validators, CodeTarget, DataTarget, Pipeline, SchemaCollector, etc. are plugin-friendly. See Extend overview.

Related links

• Introduction
• CLI reference
• Cascading options xargs table
• Built-ins