Local reference to enum defined in an object from a different file, same workspace #3328

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1. erunehtar commented on Jan 9, 2026

   

   erunehtar

   on Jan 9, 2026

   Last edited by erunehtar

   Author

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   I was able to workaround it by doing:

   file1.lua

   local module = ...
   
   ---@alias Module.Color string
   ---@alias Module.ColorEnum table<string, Module.Color>
   
   ---@type Module.ColorEnum
   module.Color = {
       White = "ffffffff",
       Black = "ff000000",
       Yellow = etc...
   }

   file2.lua

   local module = ...
   
   ---@type Module.ColorEnum
   local Color = module.Color

   Basically, skip using @enum and make up a custom enum declaration. However this lose the enum validation, since now using ---@param Module.Color allows for any string to be passed to the function.

   Please let me know if this can be achieved using @enum with some syntax I could not figure out.
2. tomlau10 commented on Jan 10, 2026

   

   tomlau10

   on Jan 10, 2026

   Contributor

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   I believe you misused the @enum.
   please see #3151 (comment)

   ---

   And if your module.lua already return that module table, you actually don't need @type at all 🤔

   • module.lua

   local module = {}
   
   ---@enum Module.Color
   module.Color = {
       White = "ffffffff",
       Black = "ff000000",
   }
   
   return module

   • main.lua

   local module = require "module"
   
   -- the server already know the type of `module.Color`
   local Color = module.Color
   
   print(Color.Black)
   print(Color.NoSuchColor) --<< warning: undefined field

   
3. erunehtar commented on Jan 10, 2026

   

   erunehtar

   on Jan 10, 2026

   Last edited by erunehtar

   Author

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   Sorry I forgot to mention that there is no return module nor require "module" in my Lua environment (this is WoW Lua 5.1 environment), and the way the "module" object is passed around is by providing it as an argument when they load the lua file, we get the "module" by fetching it with local moduleName, module = ... at the top of each lua file of the project.

   Would this environment cause issues with how the Lua language server process types across units?

   But in any case, that comment you posted indeed contained the solution to my issue! And I don't even need the ---@type anymore in file2.lua, which is even better. ❤️ thank you very much!

   Here is the full working syntax if anyone ever search for this again (the key was really the ---@class and .* combinaison) :

   file1.lua

   local moduleName, module = ... ---@cast module Module
   
   ---@class Module
   ---@field Color Module.Color.*
   
   ---@enum Module.Color
   local Color = { ---@class Module.Color.*
       White = "ffffffff",
       Black = "ff000000",
       Yellow = etc...
   }
   module.Color = Color

   file2.lua

   local moduleName, module = ... ---@cast module Module
   
   local Color = module.Color
   
   ---@param color Module.Color
   local function SetColor(color)
       -- code ...
   end
   
   ---@param text string
   local function Print(text)
       SetColor(Color.Blue) -- no diagnostic errors, yay! =D
   end

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Tom Lau
4. erunehtar

   closed this as completedon Jan 10, 2026