How to set up big tables?

Hi guys,

I'd just like your advice of where to go with this, I think I'm on the right track but im not sure how to execute it... (I think I might be a bit out of my depth haha)

So I want to make a table which i can call from anywhere (so i'm putting it in a module script) which stores all of the values associated with a player. These will include currencies, experience data etc. I think I want to structure this as follows: (let me know if you'd do it differently

1. Table where: index = "player_" ... player_UserId --(this will let me find the correct thing to edit late?) value = another table (see below) 2 (the value from part 1). Table where: index = file names (e.g. resources or data) value = another table (see below) 3 (the value from part 2, inside of ["resources"]). Table where: (theres another section similar to 2 to organise information, or...) index = currencies (e.g. gold, wood, stone etc.) value = the value associated with the index (this is the number to do maths on etc

I'm not sure if metatables are what I need because the table will just be storing numbers. Obviously these numbers will be changed as the player advances however, this addition/subtraction could just be done by getting the value out of the table e.g.

local number = --the number in the table
number = number + change

...Let me know what you think.

What I'm doing at the moment is:

local _M = {}

    local UserId_list = {} -- a list of "player_" .. player.UserId

    function _M.player_info(player) -- to be called when looking for the info table
        local key = tostring("player_" .. player.UserId)

            if UserId_list[key] then -- if there is already an entry in the table, return it
            return UserId_list[key] --returns the table to be manipulated by another script and then it'll be sent back and stored again

        else
            local rss_meetatable = {
                ["gems"] = 0,
                ["gold"] = 0,
                ["food"] = 0,
                ["stone"] = 0,
                ["wood"] = 0,
                ["premiums"] = 0
                } --a dictionary of resources and their starting value
            UserId_list[key] = rss_meetatable -- creates a new key with the value set to the table above
            return UserId_list[key] --returns the table to be manipulated by another script and then it'll be sent back and stored again
        end     
    end


return _M

Is this script even close to doing what I'm tying to achieve? Is there a better way to do this?

Hopefully what I'm trying to do/explain has made sense and you can give me some pointers for what to read or what to do differently. Thank you!

If you have any questions please comment :)