local items = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 } local out = (function() local _tbl_0 = { } for k in items do _tbl_0[k] = k * 2 end return _tbl_0 end)() local x = { hello = "world", okay = 2323 } local copy = (function() local _tbl_0 = { } for k, v in pairs(x) do if k ~= "okay" then _tbl_0[k] = v end end return _tbl_0 end)()