global variables seen as nil

PAC

Hi everyone. I'm having a problem with some global variables being seen with nil values.
This is only happening on my android phone. It doesn't happen when running on Gideros Player with Windows 7.

I have all my Global variables declared at the very top of 'main.lua'.
Ex:
puznumber=0
puzmark =0

Errors from Gideros and Eclipse:

Sample #1:
load_Puzzle = function( )
local ps=string.format("%03d", puznumber)
--
--
end

Gideros ERROR:
main.lua:604: bad argument #2 to 'format' (number expected, got nil)


Sample #2:
local function save_State()
local file=io.open("|D|cpsettings.txt","w+")
file:write(puzmark, "\n")
--
--
end

Eclipse ERROR::
E/AndroidRuntime(19373): com.giderosmobile.android.player.LuaException: ......... attempt to
index global 'puzmark' (a nil value)

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

pie

Hi @PAC I can guess that some function is trying to access the variables BEFORE main.lua is processed (main.lua is usually the last file in loading order).

You can try placing them in another lua file, and make sure it is loaded first (right click on file in project tree to check for loading order, here you can also check for file dependencies)
If this is the reason for the errors, on desktop it may be working due to faster reading/loading times.

PAC

pie, these were great suggestions, I really thought you nailed it, but after moving these variables to the top of the file order I'm still having the same problem.

I've read more than once about the pitfalls of using Globals and have used as few as possible. I'll do some more studying on lua.
MANY THANKS for the suggestions!

pie

You're welcome,
Try zerobrane studio. It has a nice watch window and debugging features that may be of help. Do a search on this forum, there are also some tutorials around

ar2rsawseen

init.lua is the file that is loaded first

Then we have file in alphabetical order (while resolving code dependencies provided)
and then main.lua is loaded last

So global values better to put in init.lua

antix

I always forget init.lua, its so handy!

PAC

Thanks again for the input guys. Here was the problem. I exit the game with

if gamestate==666 then
save_State()
collectgarbage()
collectgarbage()
collectgarbage()
collectgarbage()
puznumber=nil -- these were the variables I had trouble with
puzmark=nil

application:exit()
end

Since gamestate never got cleared it was reading save_State() twice before application:exit() finalized. |) I thought application:exit() would have stopped all.

Is application:exit() a good way to close a program? Seems like a lot of apps use 'swipe down' instead.