Actor names with a for loop?

Ninjadoodle · January 2014

Hey guys

I'm trying to figure out the syntax for looping through actor name with a FOR loop.
I have - actor1, actor2 and actor3

I want to set some properties, like …
actor1.hungry = false;
actor1:setY(100)
etc.

I don't want to do this over and over for each actor as the properties will be the same every time.

Is there a way I can do something like this?

for i = 1, 3 do
(actor+"i").hungry = false;
(actor+"i"):setY(100)
end

Thanks in advance for any help

chipster123 · January 2014

Why not use a table of actors?

Ninjadoodle · January 2014

Do you mean, like an array? I'll have a a look at the documentation now

Mells · January 2014

What @chipster123 is suggesting looks like :

local myArray = {actor1, actor2, actor3}

then

for actorId, actor in pairs(myArray) do
    actor.hungry = false
    actor:setY(100)
end

or

for i = 1, #myArray, 1 do
    myArray[i].hungry = false
    myArray[i]:setY(100)
end

Ninjadoodle · January 2014

Thanks guys that helps a lot, the array definitely helps

I'm still wondering (just out of interest) whether there is a way to do something similar to this … (actor+"i"):setY(100) … without using an array?

The reason I ask, is that I do something similar in AS3 to access instance names.

example as3 code … (my actors on the stage are name actor1, actor2 …)

for (i=0; i<4; i++) { this["actor"+i].buttonMode = true; }

talis · January 2014

This should work:
actor.."1":setY(100)
actor.."2":setY(100)
actor.."3":setY(100)
actor.."4":setY(100)

ar2rsawseen · January 2014

The whole global scope it actually a table, so if you have variable actor1, it is actually a property of table _G.actor1, which means it can be accessed as

_G["actor"..i]

Mells · January 2014

@ar2rsawseen
on the other hand if actor1 has been declared as local, is there a way to access it?
_L["actor"..i]?

ar2rsawseen · January 2014

@Mells good one

But not that easy.
There is a function: debug.getlocal(level, local)
where level is the number - amount of functions or scopes deep from global scope, and local, is the index (order) when the variable was created
and it returns variable name and value

More info: http://pgl.yoyo.org/luai/i/debug.getlocal

like:

function test()
	local actor1 = Sprite.new()
	print(actor1)
	print(_G["actor1"])
	print(debug.getlocal(1, 1))
end
 
test()

will print:
table: 068B5340
nil
actor1 table: 068B5340

But as you might guess, it should be only used for debugging/profiling and not in the release versions, as it is probably slow as hell

Ninjadoodle · January 2014

Thanks again for the help guys!

So, arrays are the only way to do this efficiently?

ar2rsawseen · January 2014

@Ninjadoodle yes, and by definition, arrays are exactly meant for such type of structures, so you won't have to number the variables

Ninjadoodle · January 2014

Thanks again

Mells · January 2014

@ar2rsawseen

where level is the number - amount of functions or scopes deep from global scope, and local, is the index (order) when the variable was created

Well, that's almost impossible to use if you haven't saved the level and order somehow (which defeats the purpose).
My dream solution sure looked sexier

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Actor names with a for loop?

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Actor names with a for loop?

Comments