Example of how to override print and pretty-print tables

prettyprint.lua

-- keep the original print()
local _print = print

local indentation = ""

--- Pretty print a value
-- If the value is a table it's content will be printed as well (recursively)
local function pretty_print(value)
	local t = type(value)
	if t ~= "table" then
		_print(indentation .. value)
	else
		for name,data in pairs(value) do
			if type(data) == "table" then
				_print(indentation .. name .. " = {")
				indentation = indentation .. "\t"
				pretty_print(data)
				indentation = indentation:sub(1,#indentation-1)
				_print(indentation .. "}")
			else
				_print(indentation .. name .. " = " .. tostring(data))
			end
		end
	end
end

--- Improved print() function
-- If multiple arguments are passed they will be printed using the normal
-- print() function.
-- If a single argument is passed it will be pretty printed if it's a table
local function improved_print(...)
	if select('#',...) > 1 then
		_print(...)
	else
		pretty_print(select(1, ...))
	end
end

-- replace print() with improved print function that will pretty print tables
print = improved_print

local some_table = {
    root = {
        children = {
            {
                tag = {
                    foo = "bar",
                    boo = "far",
                }
            },
            {
                tag = {
                    foo = "bar",
                    boo = "far",
                    "value"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

print("aaa",123)
print("single")
print(some_table)