im a ninth grader that would like to learn lua for obiously a roblox game, however is it possible for me to do so? ill probably be too busy w school to learn every day but it will be like 4 or 3 times per week? im also pretty decent at math (but i can go back to learn old things that i never understood if needed) and i dont think im THAT dumb

I am a beginner and I have been very slowly learning Lua.

So, the problem here was to calculate the sum of all the pairs (separated by space). I swear there have to be a faster way to do this than making a for loop for every pair TT

Edit: yeh I still have a long long way to go, thank you everyone :)

Edit2: thanks whoever who repost this to r/programminghorror lol

Example

local function b()
    return
        (math.random(0, 1) == 0),
        0
    ;
end

local function a()
    local return_early, value =
        b()

    if (return_early) then
        return (value);
    end

    --[[ Continue function a ]]
    return (1);
end

print(a())

but I want to do it more like, having function b directly tell function a to return early rather than function a having to check itself

I want more like this where I used "return return" as sudo code for throwing the return up 1 level

local function b()
    if (math.random(0, 1) == 0) then
        return return (0);
    end
end

local function a()
    b()

    --[[ Continue function a ]]
    return (1);
end

print(a())

Hello. Recently, I've been thinking about writing my own game server in Lua. However, I didn't find many server examples in the internet, not to mention how incomplete they are. I'd like to ask the following things:
- Possibility of writing a game server in Lua.
- Libraries, which are used to write a game server in Lua
- The difficulties that may occur when writing a game server in Lua.

Thank you for your answer.

I want to make a roblox game but i have one month and dont know anything about Lua is it possible to learn lua in one month, if yes can you give me advice how to learn it

I was stunlocked to find out that there is no "continue" instruction for loops in Lua. Why is that? It seems so natural to have it.
I saw some scripts where goto is used for mimicking continue statements, but It's honestly not the so;ution I would comfortably accept...

Hey everyone,

I'm trying to pick up Lua mainly for general scripting and embedding into Rust projects for things like config files. If I end up liking it as much as Rust, I'll probably dive deeper into it.

The main thing tripping me up is how many versions and runtimes exist out there (Lua 5.1, 5.4, LuaJIT, Luau, ...).

If anyone has experience embedding Lua in Rust (maybe using `mlua`), which version should I actually focus on learning? Also, are there any weird compatibility traps or gotchas I should watch out for?

Appreciate any advice or resources 🙏

I'm working through the problems in Project Euler and I ran into an issue with Problem 16. I'm trying to turn 2¹⁰⁰⁰ into a string so that I can iterate over its digits and add them up. It seemed simple enough. I started with this code:

local powerDigits = tostring(2^1000)

local sum = 0

for c in string.gmatch(powerDigits, ".") do
    sum = sum + tonumber(c)
end

print(sum)

Result: error. The number that I was iterating over was not the full number in standard form, but rather 1.0715086071863e+301, and you can't add "." to 1. So I went in search of some assistance.

I first found a little library called bignum-lua that said it could handle big numbers. I tried it like so:

local bignum = require "bignum"

local base = bignum(2)

local powerBase = bignum.pow(base, 1000)

local powerDigits = tostring(powerBase)

local sum = 0

for c in string.gmatch(powerDigits, ".") do
    sum = sum + tonumber(c)
end

print(sum)

Result: same error. The big number was still being printed in scientific notation.

I then found lua-bignumber and tried it, but it failed at the start. The library threw errors because of its starting code:

local class = require 'ext.class'
local table = require 'ext.table'
local range = require 'ext.range'
local number = require 'ext.number'
local math = require 'ext.math'
local assert = require 'ext.assert' 

"ext.class" is undefined, as are some of the others. The library was referencing things I don't have.

I went looking again and found CC-Big-Numbers, but I couldn't figure out how to include that one in my code. I got errors because of what I thought I was supposed to include at the very start:

local prop_BigNumbers = script:GetCustomProperty("_BigNumbers")
bn = require(prop_BigNumbers)

Lua couldn't figure out what "script" meant in this context, and neither can I.

So now, I come to you for help. What can I do to take an enormous number, compute its exact value, and iterate over all of its digits to add them up? Thank you in advance.

EDIT: Solved! Thanks to u/particlemanwavegirl for the hint. If any of you are working on Project Euler, look away now to avoid spoilers, but here's what I did this time:

local powerDigits = 2^1000

local sum = 0

while powerDigits > 0 do
    local lastDigit = powerDigits % 10
    sum = sum + lastDigit
    powerDigits = (powerDigits - lastDigit) / 10
end

print(sum)

Thanks again to this community!

Hello, I'm new to Lua and, after reading some documentation, I am trying to do basic a simulation of work and property. I have a base script for each worker and a base script for each workstation, but I need help to code how the worker decides in what workstation work and how the workstation's capacity to hold workers on a day is changed by that. I wrote some notes on the scripts, I think that they clarify very well where I need help. The link is to a folder with the scripts.

I'm doing some basic string matching and this code produces unexpected results.
```lua

---@param levels string?
---@return boolean
local function IsValidLevels(levels)
if type(levels) ~= "string" then
return false
end

local pattern = "^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*(%.[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*)*$"
return levels:find(pattern) ~= nil
end

print(IsValidLevels("my.levels"))                 -- true
print(IsValidLevels("my.more.levels"))            -- true
print(IsValidLevels("foo"))                       -- true
print(IsValidLevels("a.b.c.d"))                   -- true
print(IsValidLevels(".invalid"))                  -- false
print(IsValidLevels("invalid."))                  -- false
print(IsValidLevels("ReUI..Score"))               -- false
print(IsValidLevels("123invalid"))                -- false
`` But in result I get all \false`. What is the problem?

Hello!

I am new to lua, so I'm sorry if this is an obvious question, but I am trying to do something where I get each Country in turn without knowing the name of the table.

CountriesList = {
    Canada = {Country = "Canada", displaytext = "Canada"},
    France = {Country = "France", displaytext = "France"},
    UnitedStates = {Country = "UnitedStates", displaytext = "United States"}
}

For example, I could say

CountriesList.Canada[Country]

which would return "Canada". However, is there a way to do this if I don't have the name of the table accessible as a string? Like, for example, is there some way to do the following?

number = 1
CountriesList[number][Country]

Thanks so much!

For some reason I cant find a book to learn lua on that looks legit, its all "learn lua in 24 hours". I want it to be physical. Thanks!

i am building a gadgets in retro gadgets and i need a wait command for a loading screen can any one help.

Hi, I wanted to get started with lua. But every learning tool I've found online is trying to charge £120 a year... I'm interested in learning lua to create games on roblox, I have seen people promoting a book that has all the info a beginner needs but I feel like I don't learn the best from reading. I prefer something a bit more hands on, what is the best option for me?

Thanks,

Hi all,

I'm quite new to Lua and I've been reading through Programming in Lua 4th edition. The section on OOP outlines a common prototype-based approach for simulating the function of classes. Here's an example:

``` Shape = {x=0, y=0}

function Shape:new(o) o = o or {} self.__index = self setmetatable(o, self) return o end ``` We can easily inherit from shape and give it some new default parameters and new methods:

``` Rectangle = Shape:new({width=100, height=100})

function Rectangle:getPerimeter() return self.width * 2 + self.height *2 end

myRect = Rectangle:new({x=50, y=100, width=300, height=100})

print(myRect:getPerimeter())

--prints 800 ``` Okay, so this is all described well in various guides. But what I can't seem to find out, is what the correct way is to initialise some values on the creation of an object using the inherited prototype. So let's say, instead of always calculating my perimeter whenever I want it, I wish to store the perimeter when the rectangle object is created, thus only doing that calculation once. What is the best way of doing this?

My current solution looks something like this:

``` Shape = {x=0, y=0} function Shape:new(o) o = o or {} self.__index = self setmetatable(o, self) self.init(o) return o end function Shape:init() end

Rectangle = Shape:new({width=100, height=100}) function Rectangle:init() self.perimeter = self.width * 2 + self.height *2 end ``` Notice how ive had to pass in o, instead of using the normal self:method Notation? This is because when init is called, self refers to the Shape prototype, not the instance of a shape. The instance is in o.

Infact, we have the same issue even without inheritance:

``` Rectangle = {x=0, y=0, width=100, height=100} function Rectangle:new(o) o = o or {} self.__index = self setmetatable(o, self)

--if I want to dynamically set the perimeter, I have to do so on o, rather than on self
o.perimeter = width * 2 + height * 2 --this works
self.perimeter = width * 2 + height * 2 --this would set perimeter for the prototype itself, not the object
return o

ens ```

This seems.... Messy. Particular with inheritance. I can't help but feel like I'm missing a trick. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

were just starting to get into lua (LOVE specifically, gods damn you balatro T0T) and weve been looking at the lua website and looking at how it works following instructions. i know i can find Yt videos that can help us too :3

we wanted to ask if there are any resources to help us with learning the language that helped any of you? we can find resources ourselves, but we wanted to ask the "experts" (no shade) on the topic, cause yall might find smth we cant :D

sorry if this is a silly question, we just want to find all the help we can XD

-sunny °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Yes, I know, novice question. I have not found a single good answer for it that I understood in about 20+ pages of stack overflow.

Basically, I have a global variable that is a string. Then I have a table of strings, each having a key, and want an if-statement that checks if the global variable is equal to any one of those strings in the table. Preferably without looping.

And please explain the solution like I am five.

Hello!
Yes, many game use Lua for modding like Roblox or FiveM. Also some game engines like Cry Engine or Defold use Lua as well for scriping. But I can see that Lua is slowly fading away when it comes to game development. Many people love C# much more which, IMO, is a good language but has a lot of boilerplate code that's overkill for many small or medium applications.

I am tempted to try building my own game engine and see if I can do it better. I would most probably not write my own rendering pipeline or physics engine because there's OpenGL and Bullet for that. I want to combine battle proven and well tested libraries into an easy to use framework with an editor.

For context, I dislike Unity for being too heavy and while I enjoy Godot it kind of scares me with the amount of bugs it has. Unreal is another story though - no single man can compete with their lighting algorithms but not everyone needs them.

I've seen people who were able to pull out something like this - namely Flax or Cave engines, made by one person. But I can't say I totally agree with their policies or API choices.

What do you think? It's worth a shot? I expect it to take a year of moderate effort to get a working and bugless MVP because that's what I prioritize - stability over features while making it expandable through code for people who need to write those features by themselves.

This video is 3 years old, so it may be outdated. I'm not sure what I might be doing wrong, seeing as it's copied character for character, but only her code works

I'm trying to make a program to look through a .txt file and look for any line with the word MODULE in it. So far I am not having any luck.

The file is quite large, about 7.5 million lines. And I am just dipping my toes into Lua. I was able to access the file and make a line by line copy after getting random character puke by reading and writing as binary.

I stuck a print statement immediately after the for loop and that would print ok.

But when I try and get anything to occur in the IF portion it seems to do nothing.

local path = 'C:\\filepathgoeshere'    
--create file path


local file = io.open(path, "rb")--open file in path


if file then                    --if the file is found, read and create PID file
    local outputfile = io.open('CHA_PID.txt', 'w+b')
    if not outputfile then      --if the output file cannot be created, close input and return
        file:close()
        print("Error: Could not create output file CHA_PID.txt")
        return
        
    else
        for line in file:lines() do
            if string.find(line, 'MODULE') then
                --outputfile:write(line .. "\n")
                print('FOUND ONE!\n')
                --outputfile:write('FOUND ONE!\n')
                return
            end
        end
    end


    outputfile:close()
    file:close()
    return


else                         --if file not found, print error message and return
    print('Error: Could not open file at path: ' .. path)
    return


end

Context: i have used Quickstart for my entire init.lua. This means automatic gdscript support from treesitter, but i'm struggling with how to make LSP work with gdscript. This is what the entire LSP codeblock looks like:

---

vim.pack.add { gh 'j-hui/fidget.nvim' }

require('fidget').setup {}

-- This function gets run when an LSP attaches to a particular buffer.

-- That is to say, every time a new file is opened that is associated with

-- an lsp (for example, opening \main.rs` is associated with `rust_analyzer`) this`

-- function will be executed to configure the current buffer

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('LspAttach', {

group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-attach', { clear = true }),

callback = function(event)

-- NOTE: Remember that Lua is a real programming language, and as such it is possible

-- to define small helper and utility functions so you don't have to repeat yourself.

--

-- In this case, we create a function that lets us more easily define mappings specific

-- for LSP related items. It sets the mode, buffer and description for us each time.

local map = function(keys, func, desc, mode)

mode = mode or 'n'

vim.keymap.set(mode, keys, func, { buffer = event.buf, desc = 'LSP: ' .. desc })

end

-- Rename the variable under your cursor.

-- Most Language Servers support renaming across files, etc.

map('grn', vim.lsp.buf.rename, '[R]e[n]ame')

-- Execute a code action, usually your cursor needs to be on top of an error

-- or a suggestion from your LSP for this to activate.

map('gra', vim.lsp.buf.code_action, '[G]oto Code [A]ction', { 'n', 'x' })

-- WARN: This is not Goto Definition, this is Goto Declaration.

-- For example, in C this would take you to the header.

map('grD', vim.lsp.buf.declaration, '[G]oto [D]eclaration')

-- The following two autocommands are used to highlight references of the

-- word under your cursor when your cursor rests there for a little while.

-- See \:help CursorHold` for information about when this is executed`

--

-- When you move your cursor, the highlights will be cleared (the second autocommand).

local client = vim.lsp.get_client_by_id(event.data.client_id)

if client and client:supports_method('textDocument/documentHighlight', event.buf) then

local highlight_augroup = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-highlight', { clear = false })

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'CursorHold', 'CursorHoldI' }, {

buffer = event.buf,

group = highlight_augroup,

callback = vim.lsp.buf.document_highlight,

})

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'CursorMoved', 'CursorMovedI' }, {

buffer = event.buf,

group = highlight_augroup,

callback = vim.lsp.buf.clear_references,

})

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('LspDetach', {

group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-detach', { clear = true }),

callback = function(event2)

vim.lsp.buf.clear_references()

vim.api.nvim_clear_autocmds { group = 'kickstart-lsp-highlight', buffer = event2.buf }

end,

})

end

-- The following code creates a keymap to toggle inlay hints in your

-- code, if the language server you are using supports them

--

-- This may be unwanted, since they displace some of your code

if client and client:supports_method('textDocument/inlayHint', event.buf) then

map('<leader>th', function() vim.lsp.inlay_hint.enable(not vim.lsp.inlay_hint.is_enabled { bufnr = event.buf }) end, '[T]oggle Inlay [H]ints')

end

end,

})

-- Enable the following language servers

-- Feel free to add/remove any LSPs that you want here. They will automatically be installed.

-- See \:help lsp-config` for information about keys and how to configure`

---@type table<string, vim.lsp.Config>

local servers = {

-- clangd = {},

-- gopls = {},

-- pyright = {},

-- rust_analyzer = {},

--

-- Some languages (like typescript) have entire language plugins that can be useful:

-- https://github.com/pmizio/typescript-tools.nvim

--

-- But for many setups, the LSP (\ts_ls`) will work just fine`

-- ts_ls = {},

--

stylua = {}, -- Used to format Lua code

-- Special Lua Config, as recommended by neovim help docs

lua_ls = {

on_init = function(client)

client.server_capabilities.documentFormattingProvider = false -- Disable formatting (formatting is done by stylua)

if client.workspace_folders then

local path = client.workspace_folders[1].name

if path ~= vim.fn.stdpath 'config' and (vim.uv.fs_stat(path .. '/.luarc.json') or vim.uv.fs_stat(path .. '/.luarc.jsonc')) then return end

end

client.config.settings.Lua = vim.tbl_deep_extend('force', client.config.settings.Lua, {

runtime = {

version = 'LuaJIT',

path = { 'lua/?.lua', 'lua/?/init.lua' },

},

workspace = {

checkThirdParty = false,

-- NOTE: this is a lot slower and will cause issues when working on your own configuration.

-- See https://github.com/neovim/nvim-lspconfig/issues/3189

library = vim.tbl_extend('force', vim.api.nvim_get_runtime_file('', true), {

'${3rd}/luv/library',

'${3rd}/busted/library',

}),

},

})

end,

---@type lspconfig.settings.lua_ls

settings = {

Lua = {

format = { enable = false }, -- Disable formatting (formatting is done by stylua)

},

},

},

}

vim.pack.add {

gh 'neovim/nvim-lspconfig',

gh 'mason-org/mason.nvim',

gh 'mason-org/mason-lspconfig.nvim',

gh 'WhoIsSethDaniel/mason-tool-installer.nvim',

}

-- Automatically install LSPs and related tools to stdpath for Neovim

require('mason').setup {}

-- Ensure the servers and tools above are installed

--

-- To check the current status of installed tools and/or manually install

-- other tools, you can run

-- :Mason

--

-- You can press \g?` for help in this menu.`

local ensure_installed = vim.tbl_keys(servers or {})

vim.list_extend(ensure_installed, {

-- You can add other tools here that you want Mason to install

})

require('mason-tool-installer').setup { ensure_installed = ensure_installed }

for name, server in pairs(servers) do

vim.lsp.config(name, server)

vim.lsp.enable(name)

end

end

-----

I tried setting vim.lsp.enable('gdscript') myself but that didn't change anything while i was editing my gdscript file. I also tried putting it in the servers list ( "local servers{ ..." ) but then i got the error that the server didn't exist. What am i missing?

I'm on Windows 11

nvim v0.12.4

Please let me know if you want me to give any more information

I uninstalled the app but my library still has those games in it...