Function help

[tarrant]

Code: [show] | [select all] lua

function lootSwitch()
        if loot = "On" then
                loot = "Off";
        else
                loot = "On";
        end
end

Hi all, the above function gives the error below. I'm not too sure what's wrong because i already have the 'then' that's expected there. Or am i doing something wrong?

Lua syntax error:[string "function lootSwitch()..."]:2: 'then' expected near '='

Also, when should i use a single =, and double ==?

I'm still pretty new to this. Thanks for your patience and help.

[Omit]

Try
if loot == "On" then

I can't tell you the number of times I have done this.
(Use the == anytime you are comparing 2 values, use = to set values)

[Iocun]

You may also want to consider changing the strings "On" and "Off" to the boolean values true and false. It won't generally make a huge difference (except for slightly simplifying certain constructs and, I suppose (?), a tiny advantage in processing time), but it just seems like good practice to me to use all data types exactly for what they were meant for. Two-state variables of the type on/off, yes/no, correct/incorrect, existent/non-existent and so on, are all archetypical examples of boolean toggles, so I'd generally use true/false for those.

(I know other people have other preferences there though and like using strings or numbers for some of those.)

Written with booleans, your function would become:

Code: [show] | [select all] lua

function lootSwitch()
        if loot then
                loot = false
        else
                loot = true
        end
end

You see that using booleans will also shorten/simplify the if statement slightly. It also has the advantage that it lessens the risk of errors due to typos: If, in your original script you accidentally used "on" instead of "On" somewhere, it would produce unexpected results, since Lua is case-sensitive.

[Yetzederixx]

Remember that in Lua, unlike Java or C(++), 0 will register as true if you test it by itself.

Code: [show] | [select all] lua

x = 0
-- will always echo true
if (x) then echo("True") else echo("False") end

So be wary using integral values for true/false

[tarrant]

Thanks guys. worked very well.