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Best Way to do this?

Asked by

8 years ago

Hi guys! I'm pretty new to LUA scripting, although I do have experience in C++, java, and i've recently been doing c# in Unity. I've been wanting to do a script where I can add a ParticleEmitter named SparkleAtmosphere to my baseplates, which are in workspace > FantasyPlates. I have multiple baseplates under FantasyPlates named BasePlate, and I tried writing a program to copy SparkleAtmosphere objects from Lighting into the baseplates when it is day, and removing them when it is night, but i'm horrific with LUA. I was wondering if anyone could look at my code and give me advice on what I could do to achieve this goal. Also, if possible, I would like to know what I could do to make my code look better or more readable, since my indenting style (especially for if statements) revolves around using brackets {}, but LUA uses "end" to tie things up, and it looks really weird. I would also like to know if all "if" and "else if" statements require an "end" or not, because I encountered some problems with that while scripting. Or rather, do I need to put an "end" every time I write a line of code that has blue words, such as "for" "while" "if"??? Thanks a bunch!

Here's my code:


local Time = game:service("Lighting") 
while true do 
    if(Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() > 480)then
        if(Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() < 1065)then

        end
        else if(Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() >= 1065) then
            local k = game.Lighting:FindFirstChild("SparkleAtmosphere"):clone()
            for index, child in pairs(workspace.FantasyPlates:GetChildren()) do
                o = child.Name
                k.Parent = o
            end
        end
    else if(Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() < 480) then
        local k = game.Lighting:FindFirstChild("SparkleAtmosphere"):clone()
        for index, child in pairs(workspace.FantasyPlates:GetChildren()) do
            o = child.Name
            k.Parent = o
        end
    end
    wait(1)
end
-- between 480 and 1065 is "day"

You may find this article very informative: http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaStyleGuide BlackJPI 2658 — 8y

Thanks for the help guys! I'll definitely look over the link, and i've learned more about the rules of LUA from reading over adark's code. Super excited to start applying it ^.^ quannguyen9 15 — 8y

1 answer

Answered by

adark 5487

8 years ago

Unlike most c-based languages, Lua does not require and 'ending' statement or symbol for if-elseif chains.

In fact, if statements in Lua are very much akin to switch statements in C.

The logic of your if statements is very... opaque. I've rewritten your code to be more readable, and to avoid writing the same code twice:

local Time = game:GetService("Lighting") --service is deprecated 
while true do 
    if Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() < 480 or Time:GetMinutesAfterMidnight() > 1065 then
        local k = game.Lighting:FindFirstChild("SparkleAtmosphere"):Clone() --clone (lowercase) is deprecated
        for _, baseplate in pairs(workspace.FantasyPlates:GetChildren()) do
        --In Lua, it's common practice to use `_` for unused variables, as in this case.
        --Additionally, 'baseplate' is more descriptive than 'child.
            k:Clone().Parent = baseplate -- Parent is an 'object' value, and Name is a 'string'. ROBLOX cannot convert between these for obvious reasons.
        end
    else
        for _, baseplate in pairs(workspace.FantasyPlates:GetChildren()) do
            if baseplate:FindFirstChild("SparkleAtmosphere") then
                baseplate.SparkleAtmosphere:Destroy()
            end
        end
    end
    wait(1)
end
-- between 480 and 1065 is "day"

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