From c57b4353ad07db2d568ff485e7d148cc079a8e61 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 12:17:44 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 01/13] ran some benchmarks

---
 README.md                                     |  27 ++++-
 ....0-1.rockspec => tinytoml-1.0.0-1.rockspec |   5 +-
 tinytoml.lua                                  | 105 +++++++++++------
 tinytoml.tl                                   | 107 ++++++++++++------
 4 files changed, 173 insertions(+), 71 deletions(-)
 rename tinytoml-0.1.0-1.rockspec => tinytoml-1.0.0-1.rockspec (87%)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 86a8666..925314e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -68,6 +68,11 @@ There are a few parsing options available that are passed in the the `options` p
   tinytoml.parse("a=2024-10-31T12:49:00Z", {load_from_string=true, type_conversion=type_conversion})
   ```
 
+- `max_nesting_depth` (default `1000`) and `max_filesize` (default `100000000` - 100 MB)
+
+  The maximum nesting depth and maxmimum filesize in bytes. tinytoml will throw an error if either of these are exceeded.
+
+
 - `assign_value_function`
 
   this method is called when assigning _every_ value to a table. It's mostly used to help perform the unit testing using [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test), since they want to see the type and parsed value for comparison purposes. This option is the only one that has potential to change, so we advice against using it. If you need specific functionality that you're implementing through this (or find this function useful in general) - please let us know.
@@ -116,4 +121,24 @@ local_time = 07:32:00
 local_date = 1979-05-27
 ```
 
-This effectively means you'll have to pre-process dates and times to strings in your codebase, before passing them to tinytoml's encoder.
\ No newline at end of file
+This effectively means you'll have to pre-process dates and times to strings in your codebase, before passing them to tinytoml's encoder.
+
+## Comparisons
+Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML parser to use. The data was collected with the most recent versions as of 1/2026.
+
+| Feature           | tinytoml                      | toml-edit                     | toml.lua                      | toml2lua                       | tomlua                        |
+|:------------------|:------------------------------|:------------------------------|:------------------------------|:-------------------------------|:------------------------------|
+| Language          | Lua                           | Rust binding                  | C++ binding                   | Lua                            | C                             |
+| TOML Version      | 1.1.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                          | Not Specified                 |
+| UTF-8 Support     | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                              | ✅                             |
+| Passes toml-test  | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                             | ❌                              | ❌                             |
+| Date/Time Support | Register Method               |                               | Custom Userdata/Lua Table     | Lua Table                      | Custom Userdata               |
+| Encoder           | Basic                         | Comment Preserving            | Basic, many options           | Basic                          | Very Configurable             |
+| 16 KB TOML decode | Lua: 7.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 2.7ms | Lua: 2.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 1.0ms | Lua: dnf <br> LuaJIT: 2.4ms   | Lua: 32.5ms <br> LuaJIT: 7.0ms | Lua: 1.6ms <br> LuaJIT: .29ms |
+| 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 3.9s <br> LuaJIT: 423ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 32.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |
+
+**NOTES:**
+- tinytoml, toml2lua, and tomlua's toml-test support were verified by running through toml-test. toml-edit and toml.lua were based on the bindings, which both passed toml-test.
+- I was using hyperfine to run the tests, and toml.lua's time estimate rapidly started rising in the middle of the 16KB run and segfaulted with the higher runs.
+- Tests were run in a docker container running on an arm64 Mac, as tomlua did not compile on macOS at the time the benchmarks were taken.
+- Standard benchmark disclaimer: These are all relative to each other and milage on your machine will vary.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tinytoml-0.1.0-1.rockspec b/tinytoml-1.0.0-1.rockspec
similarity index 87%
rename from tinytoml-0.1.0-1.rockspec
rename to tinytoml-1.0.0-1.rockspec
index 134338d..adfc7f2 100644
--- a/tinytoml-0.1.0-1.rockspec
+++ b/tinytoml-1.0.0-1.rockspec
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 package = "tinytoml"
-version = "0.1.0-1"
+version = "1.0.0-1"
 
 source = {
     url = "git://github.com/FourierTransformer/tinytoml.git",
-    tag = "0.1.0"
+    tag = "1.0.0"
 }
 
 description = {
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ description = {
    It supports all TOML 1.1.0 features including parsing strings, numbers, datetimes, arrays, inline-tables and even validating UTF-8 with good error messages if anything fails!
   ]],
     homepage = "https://github.com/FourierTransformer/tinytoml",
-    maintainer = "Fourier Transformer <ftransformer@protonmail.com>",
     license = "MIT"
 }
 
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index 84e5859..4a2e9e5 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -146,8 +146,6 @@ tinytoml._LICENSE = "MIT"
 
 
 
-
-
 
 
 
@@ -639,7 +637,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
          if sec then
             validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
             sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
             return true
          end
 
@@ -647,12 +645,12 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
          if sec then
             validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
             sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
             return true
          end
       else
          sm.value_type = "time-local"
-         sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. ":00")
+         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. ":00")
          return true
       end
    end
@@ -664,7 +662,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
       year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
       validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date")
       sm.value_type = "date-local"
-      sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
 
 
 
@@ -706,32 +704,32 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
          sm.match = sm.match .. sm.ext
          if sm.ext:find("^%.%d+$") then
             sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+Z$") then
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
             sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
             validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
             sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
             validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          end
       else
          sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-         sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
          return true
       end
    end
@@ -793,7 +791,7 @@ local function add_array_comma(sm)
    if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
       table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
    else
-      table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
+      table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
    end
    sm.value = nil
 
@@ -937,7 +935,7 @@ local function assign_value(sm)
    if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
       output = sm.value
    else
-      output = sm.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type)
+      output = sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type)
    end
 
 
@@ -1125,34 +1123,74 @@ local function generic_type_conversion(raw_value) return raw_value end
 
 function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
    local sm = {}
-   sm.assign_value_function = generic_assign
-   sm.type_conversion = {
-      ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
-      ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
-      ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
-      ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+
+   local default_options = {
+      max_nesting_depth = 1000,
+      max_filesize = 100000000,
+      load_from_string = false,
+      assign_value_function = generic_assign,
+      type_conversion = {
+         ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
+         ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+         ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+         ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+      },
    }
 
    if options then
-      if options.load_from_string then
-         sm.input = filename
-         sm.filename = "string input"
+
+      if options.max_nesting_depth ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.max_nesting_depth) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_nesting_depth' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_nesting_depth) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_nesting_depth) .. "'")
       end
-      if options.assign_value_function then
-         sm.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function
-      else
+
+      if options.max_filesize ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.max_filesize) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_filesize' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_filesize) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_filesize) .. "'")
+      end
+
+      if options.assign_value_function ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.assign_value_function) == "function", "the tinytoml option 'assign_value_function' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.assign_value_function) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.assign_value_function) .. "'")
+      end
+
+      if options.load_from_string ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
       end
-      if options.type_conversion then
+
+      if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
          for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
-            sm.type_conversion[(key)] = value
+            assert(type(key) == "string")
+            if not default_options.type_conversion[key] then
+               error("")
+            end
+            assert(type(value) == "function")
+         end
+      end
+
+
+      options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
+      options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
+      options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
+      options.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function or default_options.assign_value_function
+      options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
+
+
+      if options.load_from_string == true then
+         sm.input = filename
+         sm.filename = "string input"
+      end
+
+
+      for key, value in pairs(default_options.type_conversion) do
+         if options.type_conversion[key] == nil then
+            options.type_conversion[key] = value
          end
       end
-      options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or 100000000
-      options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or 1000
+
    else
-      options = { load_from_string = false, max_filesize = 100000000, max_nesting_depth = 1000 }
+      options = default_options
    end
 
+
    sm.options = options
 
    if options.load_from_string == false then
@@ -1272,7 +1310,8 @@ local function escape_string(str, multiline, is_key)
 
 
       local sm = { input = str, i = 1, line_number = 1, line_number_char_index = 1 }
-      sm.type_conversion = {
+      sm.options = {}
+      sm.options.type_conversion = {
          ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1430,7 +1469,7 @@ local function encoder(input_table, encoded_string, depth, options)
             end
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = escape_key(k)
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = "', received the following error message:\n\n"
-            _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
+
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = error_or_encoded_element
             error(table.concat(error_message))
          end
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index 1a4af8c..d565871 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -147,8 +147,6 @@ local record StateMachine
     meta_table: {any:{MTType}}
     current_meta_table: {any:{MTType}}
     inline_table_backup: {InlineTableSave} -- stores all the stuff as we descend into nested inline-tables
-    assign_value_function: function(value: any, value_type?: string): any
-    type_conversion: {TomlType:function<T>(raw_value: string): T}
 end
 
 local sbyte = string.byte
@@ -639,7 +637,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
             if sec then
                 validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
                 sm.value_type = "time-local"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. sm.ext)
                 return true
             end
 
@@ -647,12 +645,12 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
             if sec then
                 validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
                 sm.value_type = "time-local"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. sm.ext)
                 return true
             end
         else
             sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. ":00") -- assume :00 if no seconds are provided
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. ":00") -- assume :00 if no seconds are provided
             return true
         end
     end
@@ -664,7 +662,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
         year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
         validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date")
         sm.value_type = "date-local"
-        sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
 
         -- small hack that allows datetimes with spaces to work
         -- does involve updating the current position in a validator...
@@ -706,32 +704,32 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
             sm.match = sm.match .. sm.ext
             if sm.ext:find("^%.%d+$") then
                 sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+Z$") then
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
                 sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
                 validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
                 sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
                 validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             end
         else
             sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-            sm.value = sm.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
             return true
         end
     end
@@ -793,7 +791,7 @@ local function add_array_comma(sm: StateMachine)
     if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type=="inline-table" then
         table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
     else
-        table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
+        table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
     end
     sm.value = nil -- to handle the post comma condition
 
@@ -937,7 +935,7 @@ local function assign_value(sm: StateMachine)
     if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
         output = sm.value as {any}
     else
-        output = sm.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type) as {any}
+        output = sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type) as {any}
     end
 
     -- iterate over keys, updating the pointer at "out_table"
@@ -1125,34 +1123,74 @@ local function generic_type_conversion<T>(raw_value: string): T return raw_value
 
 function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:any}
     local sm: StateMachine = {}
-    sm.assign_value_function = generic_assign 
-    sm.type_conversion = {
-        ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
-        ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
-        ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
-        ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion
+
+    local default_options: TinyTomlOptions = {
+        max_nesting_depth = 1000,
+        max_filesize = 100000000,
+        load_from_string = false,
+        assign_value_function = generic_assign,
+        type_conversion = {
+            ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
+            ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+            ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
+            ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion
+        }
     }
-    
+
     if options then
-        if options.load_from_string then
-            sm.input = filename
-            sm.filename = "string input"
+        -- type check all the options!
+        if options.max_nesting_depth ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.max_nesting_depth) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_nesting_depth' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_nesting_depth) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_nesting_depth) .. "'")
         end
-        if options.assign_value_function then
-            sm.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function        
-        else
+
+        if options.max_filesize ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.max_filesize) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_filesize' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_filesize) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_filesize) .. "'")
+        end
+
+        if options.assign_value_function ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.assign_value_function) == "function", "the tinytoml option 'assign_value_function' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.assign_value_function) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.assign_value_function) .. "'")
+        end
+
+        if options.load_from_string ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
         end
-        if options.type_conversion then
+
+        if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
             for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
-                sm.type_conversion[(key as TomlType)] = value
+                assert(type(key) == "string")
+                if not default_options.type_conversion[key] then
+                    error("")
+                end
+                assert(type(value) == "function")
+            end
+        end
+
+        -- put in the defaults
+        options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
+        options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
+        options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
+        options.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function or default_options.assign_value_function
+        options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
+        
+        -- verify/setup the last couple of things
+        if options.load_from_string == true then
+            sm.input = filename
+            sm.filename = "string input"
+        end
+
+        -- ensure a value is set for all the options.type_conversion
+        for key, value in pairs(default_options.type_conversion) do
+            if options.type_conversion[key] == nil then
+                options.type_conversion[key] = value
             end
         end
-        options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or 100000000
-        options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or 1000
+
     else
-        options = {load_from_string = false, max_filesize = 100000000, max_nesting_depth = 1000}
+        options = default_options
     end
 
+    -- finally set sm.options
     sm.options = options
 
     if options.load_from_string == false then
@@ -1272,7 +1310,8 @@ local function escape_string(str: string, multiline: boolean, is_key: boolean):
         
         -- setting up a _very_ basic StateMachine
         local sm: StateMachine = {input=str, i=1, line_number=1, line_number_char_index=1}
-        sm.type_conversion = {
+        sm.options = {}
+        sm.options.type_conversion = {
             ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1430,7 +1469,7 @@ local function encoder(input_table: any, encoded_string: {string}, depth: {strin
                 end
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = escape_key(k)
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = "', received the following error message:\n\n"
-                _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
+                -- _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = error_or_encoded_element
                 error(table.concat(error_message))
             end

From 02bddaec2b4cc4e24ee864de8e203b877bf9a36a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 12:44:05 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 02/13] started removal of assign_value_function

---
 README.md        |  4 ----
 spec/decoder.lua | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 spec/decoder.tl  | 40 ----------------------------------------
 tinytoml.lua     | 20 ++------------------
 tinytoml.tl      | 20 ++------------------
 5 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 85 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 spec/decoder.tl

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 925314e..58eae4c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -73,10 +73,6 @@ There are a few parsing options available that are passed in the the `options` p
   The maximum nesting depth and maxmimum filesize in bytes. tinytoml will throw an error if either of these are exceeded.
 
 
-- `assign_value_function`
-
-  this method is called when assigning _every_ value to a table. It's mostly used to help perform the unit testing using [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test), since they want to see the type and parsed value for comparison purposes. This option is the only one that has potential to change, so we advice against using it. If you need specific functionality that you're implementing through this (or find this function useful in general) - please let us know.
-
 ## Encoding TOML
 
 tinytoml includes a basic TOML encoder, since we don't preserve comments (and have no plans to), this library is not good for _editing_ hand-written TOML files. If you want to do that, the [toml-edit library](https://github.com/lumen-oss/toml-edit.lua) is a much better choice. However, there may be situations where you need a pure Lua TOML encoder, and tinytoml could prove useful.
diff --git a/spec/decoder.lua b/spec/decoder.lua
index 55bb63c..ee2bfe7 100644
--- a/spec/decoder.lua
+++ b/spec/decoder.lua
@@ -28,12 +28,35 @@ local function float_to_string(x)
 end
 
 
-local assign_value_function = function(value, value_type)
-   if value_type == "float" then
-      return { ["value"] = float_to_string(value), ["type"] = value_type }
+local function add_toml_test_tag(table_to_clear)
+   if type(table_to_clear) ~= "table" then
+
+      if type(table_to_clear) == "number" then
+         if math.type(table_to_clear) == "integer" then
+            return {type="integer", value=tostring(table_to_clear)}
+         else
+            return {type="float", value=float_to_string(table_to_clear)}
+         end
+
+      elseif type(table_to_clear) == "string" then
+         return {type="string", value=table_to_clear}
+
+      elseif type(table_to_clear) == "boolean" then
+         return {type="bool", value=tostring(table_to_clear)}
+
+      else
+         return table_to_clear["value"]
+      end
+
    else
-      return { ["value"] = tostring(value), ["type"] = value_type }
+      for k, v in pairs(table_to_clear) do
+         table_to_clear[k] = add_toml_test_tag(v)
+      end
    end
+
+   return table_to_clear
 end
 
-print(cjson.encode(tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, assign_value_function = assign_value_function })))
+local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true })
+add_toml_test_tag(output)
+print(cjson.encode(output))
diff --git a/spec/decoder.tl b/spec/decoder.tl
deleted file mode 100644
index 4510dc2..0000000
--- a/spec/decoder.tl
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env lua
-
-local cjson = require("cjson")
-local tinytoml = require("tinytoml")
-
-local to_inf_and_beyound = {
-   ["inf"] = true,
-   ["-inf"] = true,
-   ["nan"] = true,
-   ["-nan"] = true
-}
-
--- Using a slightly modified version from https://stackoverflow.com/a/69827191
-local function float_to_string(x: number): string
-   -- a table key can't be nan in Lua, and I would've rather checked for equality with
-   -- math.huge/nan (as 0/0), but (0/0) != (0/0) in Lua so I think this is probably fine.
-   if to_inf_and_beyound[tostring(x)] then
-      return tostring(x)
-   end
-   for precision = 15, 17 do
-      -- Use a 2-layer format to try different precisions with %g.
-      local s <const> = ('%%.%dg'):format(precision):format(x)
-      -- See if s is an exact representation of x.
-      if tonumber(s) == x then
-         return s
-      end
-   end
-end
-
--- the format toml-test expects
-local assign_value_function = function(value: any, value_type?: string): any 
-   if value_type == "float" then
-      return {["value"]=float_to_string(value as number), ["type"]=value_type}
-   else
-      return {["value"]=tostring(value), ["type"]=value_type} 
-   end
-end
-
-print(cjson.encode(tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), {load_from_string=true, assign_value_function=assign_value_function})))
-
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index 4a2e9e5..b889782 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 
 
 
-
 local tinytoml = {}
 
 
@@ -788,11 +787,7 @@ local function create_array(sm)
 end
 
 local function add_array_comma(sm)
-   if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
-      table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
-   else
-      table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
-   end
+   table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
    sm.value = nil
 
    sm.i = sm.i + 1
@@ -932,11 +927,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_value(sm)
    local output = {}
-   if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
-      output = sm.value
-   else
-      output = sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type)
-   end
+   output = sm.value
 
 
    local out_table = sm.current_table
@@ -1118,7 +1109,6 @@ local transitions = {
    },
 }
 
-local function generic_assign(value) return value end
 local function generic_type_conversion(raw_value) return raw_value end
 
 function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
@@ -1128,7 +1118,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       max_nesting_depth = 1000,
       max_filesize = 100000000,
       load_from_string = false,
-      assign_value_function = generic_assign,
       type_conversion = {
          ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1147,10 +1136,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
          assert(type(options.max_filesize) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_filesize' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_filesize) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_filesize) .. "'")
       end
 
-      if options.assign_value_function ~= nil then
-         assert(type(options.assign_value_function) == "function", "the tinytoml option 'assign_value_function' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.assign_value_function) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.assign_value_function) .. "'")
-      end
-
       if options.load_from_string ~= nil then
          assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
       end
@@ -1170,7 +1155,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
       options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
       options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-      options.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function or default_options.assign_value_function
       options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
 
 
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index d565871..7975489 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ end
 
 local record TinyTomlOptions
     load_from_string: boolean
-    assign_value_function: function(value: any, value_type?: string): any
     type_conversion: {TomlConversionType:function<T>(raw_value: string):T}
     max_filesize: integer
     max_nesting_depth: integer
@@ -788,11 +787,7 @@ local function create_array(sm: StateMachine)
 end
 
 local function add_array_comma(sm: StateMachine)
-    if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type=="inline-table" then
-        table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
-    else
-        table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type))
-    end
+    table.insert(sm.arrays[sm.nested_arrays], sm.value)
     sm.value = nil -- to handle the post comma condition
 
     sm.i = sm.i + 1
@@ -932,11 +927,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_value(sm: StateMachine)
     local output = {}
-    if sm.value_type == "array" or sm.value_type == "inline-table" then
-        output = sm.value as {any}
-    else
-        output = sm.options.assign_value_function(sm.value, sm.value_type) as {any}
-    end
+    output = sm.value as {any}
 
     -- iterate over keys, updating the pointer at "out_table"
     local out_table = sm.current_table as {any:any}
@@ -1118,7 +1109,6 @@ local transitions: {states:{integer:{function, states}}} = {
     }
 }
 
-local function generic_assign(value: any): any return value end
 local function generic_type_conversion<T>(raw_value: string): T return raw_value as T end
 
 function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:any}
@@ -1128,7 +1118,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         max_nesting_depth = 1000,
         max_filesize = 100000000,
         load_from_string = false,
-        assign_value_function = generic_assign,
         type_conversion = {
             ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1147,10 +1136,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
             assert(type(options.max_filesize) == "number", "the tinytoml option 'max_filesize' takes in a 'number'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.max_filesize) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.max_filesize) .. "'")
         end
 
-        if options.assign_value_function ~= nil then
-            assert(type(options.assign_value_function) == "function", "the tinytoml option 'assign_value_function' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.assign_value_function) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.assign_value_function) .. "'")
-        end
-
         if options.load_from_string ~= nil then
             assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
         end
@@ -1170,7 +1155,6 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
         options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
         options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-        options.assign_value_function = options.assign_value_function or default_options.assign_value_function
         options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
         
         -- verify/setup the last couple of things

From c8b1f28ff7d15c46af2ea85622cc06fd01b36fa9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 16:00:12 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 03/13] working on adding in the date time type

---
 spec/decoder.lua |   2 +-
 tinytoml.lua     | 119 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
 tinytoml.tl      | 123 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
 3 files changed, 173 insertions(+), 71 deletions(-)

diff --git a/spec/decoder.lua b/spec/decoder.lua
index ee2bfe7..2e03431 100644
--- a/spec/decoder.lua
+++ b/spec/decoder.lua
@@ -57,6 +57,6 @@ local function add_toml_test_tag(table_to_clear)
    return table_to_clear
 end
 
-local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true })
+local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, encode_date_and_times_as = "table" })
 add_toml_test_tag(output)
 print(cjson.encode(output))
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index b889782..e058268 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@
 
 
 
+
+
+
+
+
+
 local tinytoml = {}
 
 
@@ -625,31 +631,69 @@ local function validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, anchor)
    end
 end
 
+local function assign_time_local(sm, match, hour, min, sec, msec)
+   sm.value_type = "time-local"
+   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
+   else
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec })
+   end
+end
+
+local function assign_date_local(sm, match, year, month, day)
+   sm.value_type = "date-local"
+   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
+   else
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day })
+   end
+end
+
+local function assign_datetime_local(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec)
+   sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
+   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
+   else
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0 })
+   end
+end
+
+local function assign_datetime(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec)
+   sm.value_type = "datetime"
+   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
+   else
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0 })
+   end
+end
+
 local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
+   local hour_s, min_s, sec_s, msec_s
    local hour, min, sec
-   sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour, min, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
+   sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
    if sm.match then
-      validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "local-time")
+      hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
+      min = _tointeger(min_s)
+      validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
 
       if sm.ext ~= "" then
-         sm._, sm._, sec = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)$")
-         if sec then
-            validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-            sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+         sm._, sm._, sec_s = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)$")
+         if sec_s then
+            sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+            validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
+            assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. sm.ext, hour, min, sec, 0)
             return true
          end
 
-         sm._, sm._, sec = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)%.%d+$")
-         if sec then
-            validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-            sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+         sm._, sm._, sec_s, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)%.(%d+)$")
+         if sec_s then
+            sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+            validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
+            assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. sm.ext, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
             return true
          end
       else
-         sm.value_type = "time-local"
-         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match .. ":00")
+         assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. ":00", hour, min, 0, 0)
          return true
       end
    end
@@ -660,8 +704,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
    if sm.match then
       year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
       validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date")
-      sm.value_type = "date-local"
-      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+      assign_date_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day)
 
 
 
@@ -679,20 +722,22 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
       end
    end
 
-   sm._, sm._, sm.match, year_s, month_s, day_s, hour, min, sm.ext =
+   sm._, sm._, sm.match, year_s, month_s, day_s, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext =
    value:find("^((%d%d%d%d)%-(%d%d)%-(%d%d)[Tt ](%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
 
    if sm.match then
-      validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "local-time")
+      hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
+      min = _tointeger(min_s)
+      validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
       year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
       validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date-time")
 
 
       local temp_ext
-      sm._, sm._, sec, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$")
-      if sec then
-         validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-         sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec
+      sm._, sm._, sec_s, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$")
+      if sec_s then
+         validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec_s), "local-time")
+         sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec_s
          sm.ext = temp_ext
       else
          sm.match = sm.match .. ":00"
@@ -702,33 +747,33 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
       if sm.ext ~= "" then
          sm.match = sm.match .. sm.ext
          if sm.ext:find("^%.%d+$") then
-            sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm._, sm._, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)Z$")
+            assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+Z$") then
-            sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            sm._, sm._, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)Z$")
+            assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-            sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
-            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
+            sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
+            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
             sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
-            sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-            sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
-            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
+            sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
+            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
             sm.value_type = "datetime"
             sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
             return true
          end
       else
-         sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+         assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
+
+
          return true
       end
    end
@@ -1118,6 +1163,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       max_nesting_depth = 1000,
       max_filesize = 100000000,
       load_from_string = false,
+      encode_date_and_times_as = "string",
       type_conversion = {
          ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1140,6 +1186,10 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
          assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
       end
 
+      if options.encode_date_and_times_as ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_date_and_times_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "'")
+      end
+
       if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
          assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
          for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
@@ -1155,6 +1205,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
       options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
       options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
+      options.encode_date_and_times_as = options.encode_date_and_times_as or default_options.encode_date_and_times_as
       options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
 
 
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index 7975489..9338e6a 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -5,9 +5,15 @@ local enum TomlConversionType
     "time-local"
 end
 
+local enum DateTimeEncode
+    "string"
+    "table"
+end
+
 local record TinyTomlOptions
     load_from_string: boolean
-    type_conversion: {TomlConversionType:function<T>(raw_value: string):T}
+    type_conversion: {TomlConversionType:function<T>(raw_value: string | table):T}
+    encode_date_and_times_as: DateTimeEncode
     max_filesize: integer
     max_nesting_depth: integer
 end
@@ -625,31 +631,69 @@ local function validate_month_date(sm: StateMachine, year: integer, month: integ
     end
 end
 
+local function assign_time_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec: integer)
+    sm.value_type = "time-local"
+    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
+    else
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec})
+    end
+end
+
+local function assign_date_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer)
+    sm.value_type = "date-local"
+    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
+    else
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day})
+    end
+end
+
+local function assign_datetime_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer)
+    sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
+    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
+    else
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0})
+    end
+end
+
+local function assign_datetime(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer)
+    sm.value_type = "datetime"
+    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
+    else
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0})
+    end
+end
+
 local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
-    local hour, min, sec: string, string, string
-    sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour, min, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string, string, string)
+    local hour_s, min_s, sec_s, msec_s: string, string, string, string
+    local hour, min, sec: integer, integer, integer
+    sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string, string, string)
     if sm.match then
-        validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "local-time")
+        hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
+        min = _tointeger(min_s)
+        validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
     
         if sm.ext ~= "" then
-            sm._, sm._, sec = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)$")
-            if sec then
-                validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-                sm.value_type = "time-local"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+            sm._, sm._, sec_s = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)$")
+            if sec_s then
+                sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+                validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
+                assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. sm.ext, hour, min, sec, 0)
                 return true
             end
 
-            sm._, sm._, sec = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)%.%d+$")
-            if sec then
-                validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-                sm.value_type = "time-local"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. sm.ext)
+            sm._, sm._, sec_s, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)%.(%d+)$")
+            if sec_s then
+                sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+                validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
+                assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. sm.ext, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
                 return true
             end
         else
-            sm.value_type = "time-local"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match .. ":00") -- assume :00 if no seconds are provided
+            assign_time_local(sm, sm.match .. ":00", hour, min, 0, 0) -- assume :00 if no seconds are provided
             return true
         end
     end
@@ -660,8 +704,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
     if sm.match then
         year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
         validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date")
-        sm.value_type = "date-local"
-        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+        assign_date_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day)
 
         -- small hack that allows datetimes with spaces to work
         -- does involve updating the current position in a validator...
@@ -679,20 +722,22 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
         end
     end
 
-    sm._, sm._, sm.match, year_s, month_s, day_s, hour, min, sm.ext =
+    sm._, sm._, sm.match, year_s, month_s, day_s, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext =
         value:find("^((%d%d%d%d)%-(%d%d)%-(%d%d)[Tt ](%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
         as (integer, integer, string, string, string, string, string, string, string)
     if sm.match then
-        validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "local-time")
+        hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
+        min = _tointeger(min_s)
+        validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
         year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
         validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date-time")
 
         -- see if seconds are next
         local temp_ext: string
-        sm._, sm._, sec, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
-        if sec then
-            validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec), "local-time")
-            sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec
+        sm._, sm._, sec_s, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
+        if sec_s then
+            validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec_s), "local-time")
+            sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec_s
             sm.ext = temp_ext
         else
             sm.match = sm.match .. ":00"
@@ -702,33 +747,33 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
         if sm.ext ~= "" then
             sm.match = sm.match .. sm.ext
             if sm.ext:find("^%.%d+$") then
-                sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+                sm._, sm._, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)Z$")
+                assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+Z$") then
-                sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+                sm._, sm._, msec_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)Z$")
+                assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))                
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-                sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
-                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
+                sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
+                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
                 sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
-                sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+                assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-                sm._, sm.end_seq, hour, min = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
-                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour), _tointeger(min), "offset-date-time")
+                sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
+                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
                 sm.value_type = "datetime"
                 sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
                 return true
             end
         else
-            sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+            assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
+            -- sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
+            -- sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
             return true
         end
     end
@@ -1118,6 +1163,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         max_nesting_depth = 1000,
         max_filesize = 100000000,
         load_from_string = false,
+        encode_date_and_times_as = "string",
         type_conversion = {
             ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1140,6 +1186,10 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
             assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
         end
 
+        if options.encode_date_and_times_as ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_date_and_times_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "'")
+        end
+
         if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
             assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
             for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
@@ -1155,6 +1205,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
         options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
         options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
+        options.encode_date_and_times_as = options.encode_date_and_times_as or default_options.encode_date_and_times_as
         options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
         
         -- verify/setup the last couple of things

From be397a8fabb915919612d85ff4a42ab72795be16 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 16:47:22 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 04/13] got everything working again

---
 spec/decoder.lua | 15 ++++++++++++---
 tinytoml.lua     | 34 +++++++++++++++++-----------------
 tinytoml.tl      | 34 +++++++++++++++++-----------------
 3 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)

diff --git a/spec/decoder.lua b/spec/decoder.lua
index 2e03431..0013787 100644
--- a/spec/decoder.lua
+++ b/spec/decoder.lua
@@ -49,14 +49,23 @@ local function add_toml_test_tag(table_to_clear)
       end
 
    else
-      for k, v in pairs(table_to_clear) do
-         table_to_clear[k] = add_toml_test_tag(v)
+      if not (table_to_clear.type and table_to_clear.value) then
+         for k, v in pairs(table_to_clear) do
+            table_to_clear[k] = add_toml_test_tag(v)
+         end
       end
    end
 
    return table_to_clear
 end
 
-local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, encode_date_and_times_as = "table" })
+local type_conversion = {
+  ["datetime"] = function(raw_string) return {type="datetime", value=raw_string} end,
+  ["datetime-local"] = function(raw_string) return {type="datetime-local", value=raw_string} end,
+  ["date-local"] = function(raw_string) return {type="date-local", value=raw_string} end,
+  ["time-local"] = function(raw_string) return {type="time-local", value=raw_string} end,
+}
+
+local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, encode_date_and_times_as = "string", type_conversion = type_conversion })
 add_toml_test_tag(output)
 print(cjson.encode(output))
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index e058268..a02ca42 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -658,12 +658,17 @@ local function assign_datetime_local(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec
    end
 end
 
-local function assign_datetime(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec)
+local function assign_datetime(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec, tz)
+   if tz then
+      local hour_s, min_s
+      sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = tz:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
+      validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
+   end
    sm.value_type = "datetime"
    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
-      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0 })
+      sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0, time_offset = tz or "00:00" })
    end
 end
 
@@ -672,8 +677,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
    local hour, min, sec
    sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
    if sm.match then
-      hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
-      min = _tointeger(min_s)
+      hour, min = _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s)
       validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
 
       if sm.ext ~= "" then
@@ -726,8 +730,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
    value:find("^((%d%d%d%d)%-(%d%d)%-(%d%d)[Tt ](%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
 
    if sm.match then
-      hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
-      min = _tointeger(min_s)
+      hour, min = _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s)
       validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
       year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
       validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date-time")
@@ -755,25 +758,21 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
             assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-            sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
-            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
-            sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            local tz_s
+            sm._, sm._, msec_s, tz_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)([+-]%d%d:%d%d)$")
+            assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s), tz_s)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
             assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
             return true
          elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-            sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
-            validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
-            sm.value_type = "datetime"
-            sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](sm.match)
+            local tz_s
+            sm._, sm._, tz_s = sm.ext:find("^([+-]%d%d:%d%d)$")
+            assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, 0, tz_s)
             return true
          end
       else
          assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
-
-
          return true
       end
    end
@@ -1191,7 +1190,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       end
 
       if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
-         assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
+         assert(type(options.type_conversion) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
          for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
             assert(type(key) == "string")
             if not default_options.type_conversion[key] then
@@ -1352,6 +1351,7 @@ local function escape_string(str, multiline, is_key)
          ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
       }
+      sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as = "string"
 
 
       sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index 9338e6a..e2d34bd 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -658,12 +658,17 @@ local function assign_datetime_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: inte
     end
 end
 
-local function assign_datetime(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer)
+local function assign_datetime(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer, tz?: string)
+    if tz then
+        local hour_s, min_s: string, string
+        sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = tz:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$")
+        validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
+    end
     sm.value_type = "datetime"
     if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
-        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0})
+        sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0, time_offset=tz or "00:00"})
     end
 end
 
@@ -672,8 +677,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
     local hour, min, sec: integer, integer, integer
     sm._, sm._, sm.match, hour_s, min_s, sm.ext = value:find("^((%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string, string, string)
     if sm.match then
-        hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
-        min = _tointeger(min_s)
+        hour, min = _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s)
         validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
     
         if sm.ext ~= "" then
@@ -726,8 +730,7 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
         value:find("^((%d%d%d%d)%-(%d%d)%-(%d%d)[Tt ](%d%d):(%d%d))(.*)$")
         as (integer, integer, string, string, string, string, string, string, string)
     if sm.match then
-        hour = _tointeger(hour_s)
-        min = _tointeger(min_s)
+        hour, min = _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s)
         validate_hours_minutes(sm, hour, min, "local-time")
         year, month, day = _tointeger(year_s), _tointeger(month_s), _tointeger(day_s)
         validate_month_date(sm, year, month, day, "local-date-time")
@@ -755,25 +758,21 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
                 assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s))                
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-                sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^%.%d+[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
-                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
-                sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+                local tz_s: string
+                sm._, sm._, msec_s, tz_s = sm.ext:find("^%.(%d+)([+-]%d%d:%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
+                assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, _tointeger(msec_s), tz_s)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[Zz]$") then
                 assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
                 return true
             elseif sm.ext:find("^[+-]%d%d:%d%d$") then
-                sm._, sm._, hour_s, min_s = sm.ext:find("^[+-](%d%d):(%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
-                validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
-                sm.value_type = "datetime"
-                sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
+                local tz_s: string
+                sm._, sm._, tz_s = sm.ext:find("^([+-]%d%d:%d%d)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
+                assign_datetime(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, 0, tz_s)
                 return true
             end
         else
             assign_datetime_local(sm, sm.match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec)
-            -- sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-            -- sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](sm.match)
             return true
         end
     end
@@ -1191,7 +1190,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         end
 
         if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
-            assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
+            assert(type(options.type_conversion) == "table", "the tinytoml option 'type_conversion' takes in a 'table'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.type_conversion) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.type_conversion) .. "'")
             for key, value in pairs(options.type_conversion) do
                 assert(type(key) == "string")
                 if not default_options.type_conversion[key] then
@@ -1352,6 +1351,7 @@ local function escape_string(str: string, multiline: boolean, is_key: boolean):
             ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion
         }
+        sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as = "string"
 
         -- performing the same setup as in close_other_value, should set values correctly to run validate_datetime
         sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)

From b23739837d45354cd58936fedf7fc23bf20f8743 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 19:06:14 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 05/13] updated setting name to encode_datetime_as

---
 README.md        |  4 ++--
 spec/decoder.lua |  2 +-
 tinytoml.lua     | 20 ++++++++++----------
 tinytoml.tl      | 22 +++++++++++-----------
 4 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 58eae4c..06da71f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -130,8 +130,8 @@ Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML
 | Passes toml-test  | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                             | ❌                              | ❌                             |
 | Date/Time Support | Register Method               |                               | Custom Userdata/Lua Table     | Lua Table                      | Custom Userdata               |
 | Encoder           | Basic                         | Comment Preserving            | Basic, many options           | Basic                          | Very Configurable             |
-| 16 KB TOML decode | Lua: 7.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 2.7ms | Lua: 2.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 1.0ms | Lua: dnf <br> LuaJIT: 2.4ms   | Lua: 32.5ms <br> LuaJIT: 7.0ms | Lua: 1.6ms <br> LuaJIT: .29ms |
-| 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 3.9s <br> LuaJIT: 423ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 32.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |
+| 16 KB TOML decode | Lua: 3.9ms <br> LuaJIT: 2.7ms | Lua: 2.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 1.0ms | Lua: dnf <br> LuaJIT: 2.4ms   | Lua: 32.5ms <br> LuaJIT: 7.0ms | Lua: 1.6ms <br> LuaJIT: .29ms |
+| 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 1.49s <br> LuaJIT: 415ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 32.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |
 
 **NOTES:**
 - tinytoml, toml2lua, and tomlua's toml-test support were verified by running through toml-test. toml-edit and toml.lua were based on the bindings, which both passed toml-test.
diff --git a/spec/decoder.lua b/spec/decoder.lua
index 0013787..e74f847 100644
--- a/spec/decoder.lua
+++ b/spec/decoder.lua
@@ -66,6 +66,6 @@ local type_conversion = {
   ["time-local"] = function(raw_string) return {type="time-local", value=raw_string} end,
 }
 
-local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, encode_date_and_times_as = "string", type_conversion = type_conversion })
+local output = tinytoml.parse(io.read("*a"), { load_from_string = true, encode_datetime_as = "string", type_conversion = type_conversion })
 add_toml_test_tag(output)
 print(cjson.encode(output))
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index a02ca42..1a314bd 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_time_local(sm, match, hour, min, sec, msec)
    sm.value_type = "time-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec })
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_date_local(sm, match, year, month, day)
    sm.value_type = "date-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day })
@@ -651,7 +651,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_datetime_local(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec)
    sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0 })
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ local function assign_datetime(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec
       validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
    end
    sm.value_type = "datetime"
-   if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0, time_offset = tz or "00:00" })
@@ -1162,7 +1162,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       max_nesting_depth = 1000,
       max_filesize = 100000000,
       load_from_string = false,
-      encode_date_and_times_as = "string",
+      encode_datetime_as = "string",
       type_conversion = {
          ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1185,8 +1185,8 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
          assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
       end
 
-      if options.encode_date_and_times_as ~= nil then
-         assert(type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_date_and_times_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "'")
+      if options.encode_datetime_as ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.encode_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "'")
       end
 
       if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
@@ -1204,7 +1204,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
       options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
       options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-      options.encode_date_and_times_as = options.encode_date_and_times_as or default_options.encode_date_and_times_as
+      options.encode_datetime_as = options.encode_datetime_as or default_options.encode_datetime_as
       options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
 
 
@@ -1351,7 +1351,7 @@ local function escape_string(str, multiline, is_key)
          ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
       }
-      sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as = "string"
+      sm.options.encode_datetime_as = "string"
 
 
       sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)
@@ -1504,7 +1504,7 @@ local function encoder(input_table, encoded_string, depth, options)
             end
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = escape_key(k)
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = "', received the following error message:\n\n"
-
+            _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
             error_message[#error_message + 1] = error_or_encoded_element
             error(table.concat(error_message))
          end
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index e2d34bd..c8fb2d6 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ end
 local record TinyTomlOptions
     load_from_string: boolean
     type_conversion: {TomlConversionType:function<T>(raw_value: string | table):T}
-    encode_date_and_times_as: DateTimeEncode
+    encode_datetime_as: DateTimeEncode
     max_filesize: integer
     max_nesting_depth: integer
 end
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_time_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec: integer)
     sm.value_type = "time-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec})
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_date_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer)
     sm.value_type = "date-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day})
@@ -651,7 +651,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_datetime_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer)
     sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0})
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ local function assign_datetime(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, m
         validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
     end
     sm.value_type = "datetime"
-    if sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0, time_offset=tz or "00:00"})
@@ -1162,7 +1162,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         max_nesting_depth = 1000,
         max_filesize = 100000000,
         load_from_string = false,
-        encode_date_and_times_as = "string",
+        encode_datetime_as = "string",
         type_conversion = {
             ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1185,8 +1185,8 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
             assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
         end
 
-        if options.encode_date_and_times_as ~= nil then
-            assert(type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_date_and_times_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_date_and_times_as) .. "'")
+        if options.encode_datetime_as ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.encode_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "'")
         end
 
         if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
@@ -1204,7 +1204,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
         options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
         options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-        options.encode_date_and_times_as = options.encode_date_and_times_as or default_options.encode_date_and_times_as
+        options.encode_datetime_as = options.encode_datetime_as or default_options.encode_datetime_as
         options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
         
         -- verify/setup the last couple of things
@@ -1351,7 +1351,7 @@ local function escape_string(str: string, multiline: boolean, is_key: boolean):
             ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion
         }
-        sm.options.encode_date_and_times_as = "string"
+        sm.options.encode_datetime_as = "string"
 
         -- performing the same setup as in close_other_value, should set values correctly to run validate_datetime
         sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)
@@ -1504,7 +1504,7 @@ local function encoder(input_table: any, encoded_string: {string}, depth: {strin
                 end
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = escape_key(k)
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = "', received the following error message:\n\n"
-                -- _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
+                _, _, error_or_encoded_element = error_or_encoded_element:find(".-:.-: (.*)")
                 error_message[#error_message + 1] = error_or_encoded_element
                 error(table.concat(error_message))
             end

From 7c9386d9937113e0a79039dd4de9ca1f24f4594f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 19:17:57 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 06/13] updated benchmark now that assign function is gone,
 added encode_datetime_as in README as well

---
 README.md | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 06da71f..51196c8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -68,6 +68,39 @@ There are a few parsing options available that are passed in the the `options` p
   tinytoml.parse("a=2024-10-31T12:49:00Z", {load_from_string=true, type_conversion=type_conversion})
   ```
 
+- `encode_datetime_as` (default `string`)
+
+  Allows encoding datetime either as a `string` or a `table`. The `table` will take all the individual fields and place them in a table.
+  This can be used in conjunction with `type_conversion` - either the string or table representation would be passed into whatever function is
+  specified in `type_conversion`.
+
+  Example:
+
+  ```toml
+  offset_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00Z
+  local_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00
+  local_time = 07:32:00
+  local_date = 1979-05-27
+  ```
+
+  ```lua
+  -- with the option: { encode_datetime_as = "string" }
+  {
+    offset_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00Z",
+    local_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00",
+    local_time = "07:32:00",
+    local_date = "1979-05-27"
+  }
+  -- with the option: { encode_datetime_as = "table" }
+  {
+    offset_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0, time_offset = "00:00"},
+    local_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0},
+    local_time = {hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0},
+    local_date = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27}
+  }
+
+  ```
+
 - `max_nesting_depth` (default `1000`) and `max_filesize` (default `100000000` - 100 MB)
 
   The maximum nesting depth and maxmimum filesize in bytes. tinytoml will throw an error if either of these are exceeded.

From eebb953636f6e973b942e9719d6e23afbd0d657c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 19:29:56 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 07/13] added a TOC and clarified the datetime configuration in
 the opening paragraph

---
 README.md | 10 +++++++---
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 51196c8..8b96151 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # tinytoml
 [![Run Tests and Code Coverage](https://github.com/FourierTransformer/tinytoml/actions/workflows/test-and-coverage.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/FourierTransformer/tinytoml/actions/workflows/test-and-coverage.yml) [![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/FourierTransformer/tinytoml/badge.svg?branch=refs/pull/1/merge)](https://coveralls.io/github/FourierTransformer/tinytoml?branch=main)
 
-tinytoml is a pure Lua [TOML](https://toml.io) parsing library. It's written in [Teal](https://github.com/teal-language/tl) and works with Lua 5.1-5.5 and LuaJIT 2.0/2.1. tinytoml parses a TOML document into a standard Lua table using default Lua types. Since TOML supports various datetime types, those are by default represented by strings, but can be configured to use a custom type if desired.
+tinytoml is a pure Lua [TOML](https://toml.io) parsing library. It's written in [Teal](https://github.com/teal-language/tl) and works with Lua 5.1-5.5 and LuaJIT 2.0/2.1. tinytoml parses a TOML document into a standard Lua table using default Lua types. Since TOML supports various datetime types, those are by default represented by strings, but can be configured as a table or passed in to a method so it is represented by a custom or 3rd-party library.
 
 tinytoml passes all the [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test) use cases that Lua can realistically pass (even the UTF-8 ones!). The few that fail are mostly representational:
 - Lua doesn't differentiate between an array or a dictionary, so tests involving _empty_ arrays fail.
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ tinytoml passes all the [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test) use
 
 Current Supported TOML Version: 1.1.0
 
+> [!NOTE]
+> | [Installing](#installing) | [Parsing](#parsing-toml) | [Encoding](#encoding-toml) | [Comparison]() |
+> | ---------- | ------- | -------- | ---------- |
+
 ## Installing
 You can grab the `tinytoml.lua` file from this repo (or the `tinytoml.tl` file if using Teal) or install it via LuaRocks
 
@@ -152,7 +156,7 @@ local_date = 1979-05-27
 
 This effectively means you'll have to pre-process dates and times to strings in your codebase, before passing them to tinytoml's encoder.
 
-## Comparisons
+## Comparison
 Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML parser to use. The data was collected with the most recent versions as of 1/2026.
 
 | Feature           | tinytoml                      | toml-edit                     | toml.lua                      | toml2lua                       | tomlua                        |
@@ -161,7 +165,7 @@ Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML
 | TOML Version      | 1.1.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                          | Not Specified                 |
 | UTF-8 Support     | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                              | ✅                             |
 | Passes toml-test  | ✅                             | ✅                             | ✅                             | ❌                              | ❌                             |
-| Date/Time Support | Register Method               |                               | Custom Userdata/Lua Table     | Lua Table                      | Custom Userdata               |
+| Date/Time Support | String/Table/Register Method  |                               | Custom Userdata/Lua Table     | Lua Table                      | Custom Userdata               |
 | Encoder           | Basic                         | Comment Preserving            | Basic, many options           | Basic                          | Very Configurable             |
 | 16 KB TOML decode | Lua: 3.9ms <br> LuaJIT: 2.7ms | Lua: 2.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 1.0ms | Lua: dnf <br> LuaJIT: 2.4ms   | Lua: 32.5ms <br> LuaJIT: 7.0ms | Lua: 1.6ms <br> LuaJIT: .29ms |
 | 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 1.49s <br> LuaJIT: 415ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 32.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |

From d6122a1f1f4413a44d806f0ea59c99d58f5853a1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 19:32:44 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 08/13] closer on the README

---
 README.md | 6 +++---
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8b96151..d43c8c5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ tinytoml passes all the [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test) use
 
 Current Supported TOML Version: 1.1.0
 
-> [!NOTE]
-> | [Installing](#installing) | [Parsing](#parsing-toml) | [Encoding](#encoding-toml) | [Comparison]() |
+> [!NOTE] Table of Contents
+> | [Installing](#installing) | [Parsing](#parsing-toml) | [Encoding](#encoding-toml) | [Comparison](#comparison) |
 > | ---------- | ------- | -------- | ---------- |
 
 ## Installing
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ This effectively means you'll have to pre-process dates and times to strings in
 ## Comparison
 Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML parser to use. The data was collected with the most recent versions as of 1/2026.
 
-| Feature           | tinytoml                      | toml-edit                     | toml.lua                      | toml2lua                       | tomlua                        |
+| Feature / Library | tinytoml                      | toml-edit                     | toml.lua                      | toml2lua                       | tomlua                        |
 |:------------------|:------------------------------|:------------------------------|:------------------------------|:-------------------------------|:------------------------------|
 | Language          | Lua                           | Rust binding                  | C++ binding                   | Lua                            | C                             |
 | TOML Version      | 1.1.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                         | 1.0.0                          | Not Specified                 |

From f7fae01140411409d0ff0a60231d67a078da3ead Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2026 19:33:32 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 09/13] updating the quick toc

---
 README.md | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d43c8c5..5cfe0f4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tinytoml passes all the [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test) use
 
 Current Supported TOML Version: 1.1.0
 
-> [!NOTE] Table of Contents
+> [!NOTE]
 > | [Installing](#installing) | [Parsing](#parsing-toml) | [Encoding](#encoding-toml) | [Comparison](#comparison) |
 > | ---------- | ------- | -------- | ---------- |
 

From a6a5300fca37752ddfa5fbb45fd0fd98f706a891 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:34:05 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 10/13] fixed a bug with datetime parsing to tables and renamed
 `encode_datetime_as` to `parse_datetime_as`

---
 README.md    |  6 +++---
 tinytoml.lua | 21 +++++++++++----------
 tinytoml.tl  | 23 ++++++++++++-----------
 3 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5cfe0f4..5b6fa4f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ There are a few parsing options available that are passed in the the `options` p
   tinytoml.parse("a=2024-10-31T12:49:00Z", {load_from_string=true, type_conversion=type_conversion})
   ```
 
-- `encode_datetime_as` (default `string`)
+- `parse_datetime_as` (default `string`)
 
   Allows encoding datetime either as a `string` or a `table`. The `table` will take all the individual fields and place them in a table.
   This can be used in conjunction with `type_conversion` - either the string or table representation would be passed into whatever function is
@@ -88,14 +88,14 @@ There are a few parsing options available that are passed in the the `options` p
   ```
 
   ```lua
-  -- with the option: { encode_datetime_as = "string" }
+  -- with the option: { parse_datetime_as = "string" }
   {
     offset_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00Z",
     local_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00",
     local_time = "07:32:00",
     local_date = "1979-05-27"
   }
-  -- with the option: { encode_datetime_as = "table" }
+  -- with the option: { parse_datetime_as = "table" }
   {
     offset_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0, time_offset = "00:00"},
     local_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0},
diff --git a/tinytoml.lua b/tinytoml.lua
index 1a314bd..ef81455 100644
--- a/tinytoml.lua
+++ b/tinytoml.lua
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_time_local(sm, match, hour, min, sec, msec)
    sm.value_type = "time-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec })
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_date_local(sm, match, year, month, day)
    sm.value_type = "date-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day })
@@ -651,7 +651,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_datetime_local(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec)
    sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0 })
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ local function assign_datetime(sm, match, year, month, day, hour, min, sec, msec
       validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
    end
    sm.value_type = "datetime"
-   if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+   if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type](match)
    else
       sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type]({ year = year, month = month, day = day, hour = hour, min = min, sec = sec, msec = msec or 0, time_offset = tz or "00:00" })
@@ -739,7 +739,8 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm, value)
       local temp_ext
       sm._, sm._, sec_s, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$")
       if sec_s then
-         validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec_s), "local-time")
+         sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+         validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
          sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec_s
          sm.ext = temp_ext
       else
@@ -1162,7 +1163,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       max_nesting_depth = 1000,
       max_filesize = 100000000,
       load_from_string = false,
-      encode_datetime_as = "string",
+      parse_datetime_as = "string",
       type_conversion = {
          ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1185,8 +1186,8 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
          assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
       end
 
-      if options.encode_datetime_as ~= nil then
-         assert(type(options.encode_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "'")
+      if options.parse_datetime_as ~= nil then
+         assert(type(options.parse_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'parse_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.parse_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.parse_datetime_as) .. "'")
       end
 
       if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
@@ -1204,7 +1205,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename, options)
       options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
       options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
       options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-      options.encode_datetime_as = options.encode_datetime_as or default_options.encode_datetime_as
+      options.parse_datetime_as = options.parse_datetime_as or default_options.parse_datetime_as
       options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
 
 
@@ -1351,7 +1352,7 @@ local function escape_string(str, multiline, is_key)
          ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
          ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
       }
-      sm.options.encode_datetime_as = "string"
+      sm.options.parse_datetime_as = "string"
 
 
       sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)
diff --git a/tinytoml.tl b/tinytoml.tl
index c8fb2d6..03f5068 100644
--- a/tinytoml.tl
+++ b/tinytoml.tl
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ end
 local record TinyTomlOptions
     load_from_string: boolean
     type_conversion: {TomlConversionType:function<T>(raw_value: string | table):T}
-    encode_datetime_as: DateTimeEncode
+    parse_datetime_as: DateTimeEncode
     max_filesize: integer
     max_nesting_depth: integer
 end
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_time_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec: integer)
     sm.value_type = "time-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec})
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_date_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer)
     sm.value_type = "date-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day})
@@ -651,7 +651,7 @@ end
 
 local function assign_datetime_local(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, month: integer, day: integer, hour: integer, min: integer, sec: integer, msec?: integer)
     sm.value_type = "datetime-local"
-    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0})
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ local function assign_datetime(sm: StateMachine, match: string, year: integer, m
         validate_hours_minutes(sm, _tointeger(hour_s), _tointeger(min_s), "offset-date-time")
     end
     sm.value_type = "datetime"
-    if sm.options.encode_datetime_as == "string" then
+    if sm.options.parse_datetime_as == "string" then
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType](match)
     else
         sm.value = sm.options.type_conversion[sm.value_type as TomlConversionType]({year=year, month=month, day=day, hour=hour, min=min, sec=sec, msec=msec or 0, time_offset=tz or "00:00"})
@@ -739,7 +739,8 @@ local function validate_datetime(sm: StateMachine, value: string): boolean
         local temp_ext: string
         sm._, sm._, sec_s, temp_ext = sm.ext:find("^:(%d%d)(.*)$") as (integer, integer, string, string)
         if sec_s then
-            validate_seconds(sm, _tointeger(sec_s), "local-time")
+            sec = _tointeger(sec_s)
+            validate_seconds(sm, sec, "local-time")
             sm.match = sm.match .. ":" .. sec_s
             sm.ext = temp_ext
         else
@@ -1162,7 +1163,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         max_nesting_depth = 1000,
         max_filesize = 100000000,
         load_from_string = false,
-        encode_datetime_as = "string",
+        parse_datetime_as = "string",
         type_conversion = {
             ["datetime"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["datetime-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
@@ -1185,8 +1186,8 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
             assert(type(options.load_from_string) == "boolean", "the tinytoml option 'load_from_string' takes in a 'function'. You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.load_from_string) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.load_from_string) .. "'")
         end
 
-        if options.encode_datetime_as ~= nil then
-            assert(type(options.encode_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'encode_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.encode_datetime_as) .. "'")
+        if options.parse_datetime_as ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.parse_datetime_as) == "string", "the tinytoml option 'parse_datetime_as' takes in either the 'string' or 'table' (as type 'string'). You passed in the value '" .. tostring(options.parse_datetime_as) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.parse_datetime_as) .. "'")
         end
 
         if options.type_conversion ~= nil then
@@ -1204,7 +1205,7 @@ function tinytoml.parse(filename: string, options?: TinyTomlOptions): {string:an
         options.max_nesting_depth = options.max_nesting_depth or default_options.max_nesting_depth
         options.max_filesize = options.max_filesize or default_options.max_filesize
         options.load_from_string = options.load_from_string or default_options.load_from_string
-        options.encode_datetime_as = options.encode_datetime_as or default_options.encode_datetime_as
+        options.parse_datetime_as = options.parse_datetime_as or default_options.parse_datetime_as
         options.type_conversion = options.type_conversion or default_options.type_conversion
         
         -- verify/setup the last couple of things
@@ -1351,7 +1352,7 @@ local function escape_string(str: string, multiline: boolean, is_key: boolean):
             ["date-local"] = generic_type_conversion,
             ["time-local"] = generic_type_conversion
         }
-        sm.options.encode_datetime_as = "string"
+        sm.options.parse_datetime_as = "string"
 
         -- performing the same setup as in close_other_value, should set values correctly to run validate_datetime
         sm._, sm.end_seq, sm.match = sm.input:find("^([^ #\r\n,%[{%]}]+)", sm.i)

From c3834252d5bc99ab89086ec1fae18aa96ab9e3f3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:39:31 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 11/13] adding test file

---
 tests/date_testing.tl | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 tests/date_testing.tl

diff --git a/tests/date_testing.tl b/tests/date_testing.tl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f412d2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/date_testing.tl
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+local tested = require("tested")
+local tinytoml = require("tinytoml")
+
+tested.test("encode date as string", function()
+
+    local date_toml = [[offset_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00Z
+local_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00
+local_time = 07:32:00
+local_date = 1979-05-27]]
+
+    local expected = {
+      offset_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00Z",
+      local_datetime = "1979-05-27T07:32:00",
+      local_time = "07:32:00",
+      local_date = "1979-05-27"
+    }
+
+    local parsed_dates = tinytoml.parse(date_toml, {load_from_string=true, parse_datetime_as="string"})
+
+    tested.assert({given="toml with dates", should="parse dates as strings", expected=expected, actual=parsed_dates})
+
+end)
+
+tested.test("encode date as table", function()
+
+    local date_toml = [[offset_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00Z
+local_datetime = 1979-05-27T07:32:00
+local_time = 07:32:00
+local_date = 1979-05-27]]
+
+    local expected = {
+      offset_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0, time_offset = "00:00"},
+      local_datetime = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27, hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0},
+      local_time = {hour = 7, min = 32, sec = 0, msec = 0},
+      local_date = {year = 1979, month = 05, day = 27}
+    }
+
+    local parsed_dates = tinytoml.parse(date_toml, {load_from_string=true, parse_datetime_as="table"})
+
+    tested.assert({given="toml with dates", should="parse dates as tables", expected=expected, actual=parsed_dates})
+
+end)
+
+return tested
\ No newline at end of file

From 6adaedde06d082b075cd1eeee28f488223df8ba1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:41:00 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 12/13] one last merge conflict remained

---
 README.md | 5 -----
 1 file changed, 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cd22ee5..02f49f2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ tinytoml passes all the [toml-test](https://github.com/toml-lang/toml-test) use
 
 Current Supported TOML Version: 1.1.0
 
-
 > [!TIP]
 > | [Installing](#installing) | [Parsing](#parsing-toml) | [Encoding](#encoding-toml) | [Comparison](#comparison) |
 > | ---------- | ------- | -------- | ---------- |
@@ -170,11 +169,7 @@ Here's a helpful comparison table that can be useful in deciding which Lua TOML
 | Date/Time Support | String/Table/Register Method  |                               | Custom Userdata/Lua Table     | Lua Table                      | Custom Userdata               |
 | Encoder           | Basic                         | Comment Preserving            | Basic, many options           | Basic                          | Very Configurable             |
 | 16 KB TOML decode | Lua: 3.9ms <br> LuaJIT: 2.7ms | Lua: 2.8ms <br> LuaJIT: 1.0ms | Lua: dnf <br> LuaJIT: 2.4ms   | Lua: 32.5ms <br> LuaJIT: 7.0ms | Lua: 1.6ms <br> LuaJIT: .29ms |
-<<<<<<< HEAD
-| 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 1.49s <br> LuaJIT: 415ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 32.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |
-=======
 | 8 MB TOML decode  | Lua: 1.49s <br> LuaJIT: 415ms  | Lua: 929ms <br> LuaJIT: 462ms | Lua: error <br> LuaJIT: error | Lua: 12.01s <br> LuaJIT: 3.13s  | Lua: 318ms <br> LuaJIT: 119.7ms     |
->>>>>>> main
 
 **NOTES:**
 - tinytoml, toml2lua, and tomlua's toml-test support were verified by running through toml-test. toml-edit and toml.lua were based on the bindings, which both passed toml-test.

From e8f5d2a3757a40944b80e715cbbbfc057459c996 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: FourierTransformer <FourierTransformer@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2026 19:44:31 -0600
Subject: [PATCH 13/13] added max_nesting_depth tests

---
 tests/max_nesting_depth.tl | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 tests/max_nesting_depth.tl

diff --git a/tests/max_nesting_depth.tl b/tests/max_nesting_depth.tl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a68db64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/max_nesting_depth.tl
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+local tinytoml = require("tinytoml")
+local tested = require("tested")
+
+tested.test("max nesting depth", function()
+	local crazy_toml = {"e="}
+	for i = 1, 2000 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "{e=")
+	end
+
+	table.insert(crazy_toml, "{}")
+	for i = 1, 2000 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "}")
+	end
+
+	local ok, err = pcall(tinytoml.parse, table.concat(crazy_toml), {load_from_string=true})
+
+	tested.assert({given="too much nesting", should="raies an error", expected=false, actual=ok})
+	tested.assert({given="too much nesting", should="error includes max_nesting_depth", expected=true, actual=err:find("'max_nesting_depth'") ~= nil})
+
+end)
+
+tested.test("at max nesting depth", function()
+	local crazy_toml = {"e="}
+	for i = 1, 998 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "{e=")
+	end
+
+	table.insert(crazy_toml, "{}")
+	for i = 1, 998 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "}")
+	end
+
+	local ok, err = pcall(tinytoml.parse, table.concat(crazy_toml), {load_from_string=true})
+
+	tested.assert({given="edge of nesting", should="does not raise an error", expected=true, actual=ok})
+end)
+
+tested.test("slightly above max nesting depth", function()
+	local crazy_toml = {"e="}
+	for i = 1, 1500 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "{e=")
+	end
+
+	table.insert(crazy_toml, "{}")
+	for i = 1, 1500 do
+		table.insert(crazy_toml, "}")
+	end
+
+	local ok, err = pcall(tinytoml.parse, table.concat(crazy_toml), {load_from_string=true, max_nesting_depth=2000})
+
+	tested.assert({given="edge of nesting", should="does not raise an error", expected=true, actual=ok})
+end)
+
+return tested
\ No newline at end of file