what does table.__index = table do when doing OOP?

####Accept this answer if it helped!

##Question

what does table.__index = table do when doing OOP?

##Answer The same thing when not doing OOP.

###Why do people do this? When creating classes, people set the newly created object's metatable to the original table containing the construction constructor (usually `.new)

Why do this? Well you save on having to redefine new functions every class creation.

###Example

local class = {} --// new table for class

class.__index = class --// have class be our metatable too by setting a metamethod to it

function class.new(...) --// our `.new` constructor for creating objects
	local newObject = {...} --// define array with all indexes being arguments passed to `.new`

	setmetatable(newObject, class) --// set metatable

	return newObject --// return our new object for OOP usage
end

function class:myMethod() --// custom method
	return #self --// return length of self
end

local myNewObject = class.new("a", "b", "c") --// new object from class's `.new` constructor

print(myNewObject:myMethod()) --// print's 3 because length of table is `3`

####Why does this example work? Well in the example, you may see that we are using self and may be saying "but that just references back to our class variable!" and then probably "why is it printing '3'? Well in metatables though self is set to the owner of the metatable, in this case newObject is the owner of the metatable . (cite line 5) This is also why you would want to use table.__index = table since without setting the metatable, self will just reference back to the original class table.

###Should you do this? Up to you, but I suggest using it because its my preference and its cooler. There might be other advantages i'm not covering, try seeing if anyone else answers!