loops and functions r080l0x

-- hell0 i am sergeant and I will teach y00 scripting
-----------------------------------------------------

print("Hello world!") -- prints "Hello World" in the output

--[[
    when u make a script u get that ^^
    put whateva u want in between those speech marks and its prints text

    .. what if I wanted to print that 10 times? I could do this:
--]]

print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")
print("Hello wolrd!")

-- but that looks real ugly. just a big copy and paste job. what if I made a mistake typing Hello? aw crap, I just did! now I have to go back and fix it all!...
-- to make it easier, I can write a loop that runs 10 times printing hello world. like this:

-- FOR loop
for i = 1, 10 do            -- "for how many times, do this". it's gonna run 10 times
    print("Hello world")    -- "hello world" in output
end                         -- end the loop code here.

-- this creates a variable called i, sets it to 1, and the "for ... do" loop adds 1 to i every time it goes through the loop code, until it reaches 10, and then it stops.
-- TL;DR: code runs 10 times.
-- so much easier to manage, right? ok, here's another way of doing it!

-- WHILE loop
local i = 1                 -- create a variable called i and set it to 1.
while i <= 10 do            -- "while i is less than or equal to 10, do this"
    print("Hello world!")   -- print line
    i = i + 1               -- add 1 to i
end                         -- end the loop

-- the i <= 10 inside the "while ... do" part is what you call a parameter.
    -- so let's say i = 1. that means i <= 10 is TRUE. because of that, the while loop continues, until it's false. "while this is true, keep doing this."
    -- in the future, u can use this to all sortsa things... e.g. while playerNotRespawned do fart_on_dead_body() end
    -- this is also why u might see in some scripts: while true do ... end. that's a neverending loop.

-- you might notice that the code kinda reads like english, doesn't it?
-- the best code is the easiest to read.
-- Here's another example:

-- REPEAT loop
local i = 1                 -- make i. make it equal to 1
repeat                      -- "repeat this code..."
    print("Hello world!")   -- code
until i == 10               -- "... until i is equal to 10"

-- i == 10 is a parameter. this is like the WHILE loop, but the loop stops when the parameter is TRUE.
-- it maeks sense when u read it like its english.




-- let's say I've got a sick script going on. I need it, for some reason, to print "Hello World!" 10 times when a certain thing happens!
-- does that mean I have to literally copy and paste the same loop again and again all over the place?
-- NO. you use a function. then you call it. it's basically like a portal to a section of code to run.

function hello()                -- create a function called hello()
    for i = 1, 10 do            -- your lovely code.
        print("Hello World!")
    end
end                             -- end function code

hello()                         -- runs the code inside the hello() function


--[[
    you mighta noticed that I put spaces for some lines of code to the left. those are called indents. they are there to help tell you where some code starts and ends.

function hello()
 |  for i = 1, 10 do
 |   |  print("Hello World!")
 |   v
 v  end
end

--]]

-- and when I type hello(), it runs whatever was inside the function, which is that loopcode which prints 10 times!


-- ... soo uh, what are the brackets for?
-- those are for creating local variables inside the function. i left it blank cuz I didn't need to do anything. you can too if you dont need any.
    -- but what if I wanted to change the number of times it prints "Hello World"?

function hello(loopnumber)      -- a new local variable for the function, set when u call the function!
    for i = 1, loopnumber do    -- the for statement runs however many times loopnumber is
        print("Hello World!")
    end
end

hello(69)                           -- now I can set the local variable for the function, right here! this will print "Hello World" 69 times!

-- ...what if I wanted to change what is printed?
-- you can make multiple local variables!


function hello(loopnumber, text)        -- 2 new local variables!
    for i = 1, loopnumber do
        print(text)                     -- prints the text u set
    end
end

hello(69, "420 M8")                     -- nice. don't forget to set the variables in the order u set them too.  loopnumber, text = 69, "420 M8"  in THAT order



-- of course, this is all basic code. just printing text. but you can use loops and functions for making things like several parts and other cool stuff quickly and efficiently!

-- if yo0 want mOAR just ask - serg