Getting item names from varying amount of items

[solid niche]

I am trying to get the names from items for a little ordering project, but there could be different amounts of items and I don't know how to get the names of them if there are different amounts each time. If this is confusing sorry, just ask me to elaborate or try to help explain more lmao.

[coarse minnow]

each time you add a new item you should have a table that keeps track of it with the item name as key and its count and then maybe reference that table

like what do you have right now that keeps track of what items are in the cart because if you dont have that then there is no way you can get the item names

[solid niche]

okay, I kinda get what you're saying

but how would I add and removes items from a table?

Isn't a table written code?

[coarse minnow]

table.insert() and table.remove() are methods that you can use to add and remove elements from a table

[solid niche]

OH?

[coarse minnow]

i suggest you look at the documentation to learn more about tables as they are pretty much the only data structure in roblox

and are essential

[solid niche]

ahh alright, thanks! this was supposed to be an easy project, guess not 💀 😭

okay so, this is the script I put in each item to get added to the cart, @coarse minnow. is there a way to access a table that's in a seperate script? just like if I wanted to put a table.insert() in this script but have the table be in another? Because I don't think I can make it work if I have the table here. Sorry if this is confusing

[coarse minnow]

you would have to use a module script

so that multiple scripts can access it

[solid niche]

hmmm

alright

[solid niche]

can you still use the table.insert() and what not with those?

[coarse minnow]

yes

as long as it returns a table

this is the format for modulescripts

local module = {}

return module

[solid niche]

sweet, thanks. I'll just look into module scripts a little bit to figure out how to use em

[coarse minnow]

and to get them you do this
local module = require(PathToModuleScript)

[solid niche]

in the local script?

[coarse minnow]

and then the module variable would hold a reference to that table

yes

[solid niche]

thanks!

[solid niche]

where should I put the module script, in reference to the workspace?

[digital vapor]

** You are now Level 5! **

[coarse minnow]

replicatedstorage

[solid niche]

could I just put it in one of the ui elements or no?

[coarse minnow]

i guess but it might be hard to find it

[solid niche]

okie dokie, thanks!

[coarse minnow]

like if you just put it in replicated storage its easier

[solid niche]

kk

[coarse minnow]

you just need to do require(game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage").ModuleName)

[solid niche]

you have to getservice replicated storage?

BAHAH HWHAT?

I just do game.replicatedstorage.xxxx

or is it cus it's a module script

[coarse minnow]

no it shouldnt make a difference

[solid niche]

oh, alright!

[coarse minnow]

i mean im looking right now but what get service does is this:

https://devforum.roblox.com/t/why-should-i-use-getservicereplicated-storage-or-lighting-or-really-anything-else-instead-of-gamereplicatedstorage/1994271

[solid niche]

I'll take a look. Cus the only thing I ever had to do getservice for is tweening and what not

[solid niche]

OHHH okay, that makes sense

[timid citrus]

you can use the instance tree to build the table, like loop through all of Menu.Background.Order.Cart :Children and insert Item.Text for the name, or give each item an attribute if the item's key name is different to its display name, and with this table you can fire it to your remote event. very simple really. there's always more than 1 way to solve any given problem

[timid citrus]

so yes you can access the "table" of instances and get information that way, as opposed to messing around with a random empty modulescript

[coarse minnow]

yea that would be better mb

[solid niche]

I don't get it 😭

[coarse minnow]

but you would have to parent those items added to the cart to that cart instance so get children actually gets the items in the cart

[solid niche]

I should maybe research and learn a little more lmao

[timid citrus]

game:getservice is preferred method for all roblox services, it's mostly for preference and consistency, but for example if you rename ReplicatedStorage (yes you can rename them), then game.ReplicatedStorage won't work, but game:GetService("ReplicatedStorage") will.

a bit like you can do local Players=game.Players but it is my preference to call this local PlayerService=game:GetService("Players") so the 'Players' keyword isn't consumed by the service

no functional difference really, just preference.

[solid niche]

@coarse minnow what'd i do wrong?

[timid citrus]

what didn't you do wrong in there...

[solid niche]

i've never used tables sooo

I don't know ANYTHING

[solid niche]

LMFAO

[coarse minnow]

no dont use what i did @timid citrus 's suggestion was better

[solid niche]

scold me all I want

[solid niche]

but I don't get the suggestion and lowk don't want to

[coarse minnow]

just parent the items added to the cart to the cart ui

then get those items by doing the get children method on the cart ui

[timid citrus]

you're already creating ui instances with the information you want. you can also read this information back from the instances with like getchildren

[solid niche]

But, the whole idea is to get that information and put it into a server wide ui thingy

so not on the client side

[timid citrus]

yeah get the information on the client then send it to the server ?

[solid niche]

well on the client side, just for everyone

[solid niche]

yeah

[coarse minnow]

so like when you add snickers to the cart, is there a new text label being created with the text snickers that is being parented to the cart ui?

[solid niche]

yup!

well

I can make it do that

[coarse minnow]

then use get children from the cart ui to get back the names of each food item

[solid niche]

right now its 'Item#'..cartAmount.value

[solid niche]

and then still use the table?

[coarse minnow]

no because get children returns a table

[solid niche]

ohh okay

[coarse minnow]

of all the children

[timid citrus]

luau is all about working with tables

you should take the time to learn how they work

[solid niche]

so even if the amount of items is changing, it's still going to get all of them?

[solid niche]

yeah probably, lowk underestimated how much knowledge I needed for this project

[coarse minnow]

yes because if you add 3 snickers then there should be 3 text labels with the snickers text under the cart gui

[timid citrus]

you need all the fundamentals to write anything at all

[solid niche]

debatable. im jk

[coarse minnow]

in fact you dont even really need to use an int value to keep track of how many items are in the cart

you could just get the length of the table returned by get children

[solid niche]

Thanks, but I'm NOT re doing the entire thing I've got so far 😭

[timid citrus]

you say that like 90% of code doesn't get thrown out

[coarse minnow]

you can use this operator to get the length: #

[timid citrus]

because that's true - it's closer to 95% which gets thrown out

[solid niche]

probably doing something wrong @coarse minnow

it's not printing it

[coarse minnow]

where do you parent the items

[solid niche]

the cart

[coarse minnow]

when you add them to the cart

[solid niche]

Ill show you

well, it's printing all the data, and the cartItems are in the data

so the items go inside the cart

if any of this is confusing lmk

[coarse minnow]

idk why get children is returning an empty table

that would mean it has no children

maybe you can invite me to team create and i can see

[timid citrus]

looks good on that side, add a print there to see the contents of cartItems

[coarse minnow]

hes printing on the server but its an empty table

[timid citrus]

oh i see yea they're passing the instances directly which only exist on client

need to pass the names

[solid niche]

ohh

[timid citrus]

getchildren gets you the instances, you need to do the next step and build a table of all the names from those instances

which is just a trivial for loop

[coarse minnow]

cant you also access the player's cart ui through player gui on the server?

[solid niche]

nope

not through the server

[timid citrus]

you can if you created it on the server, but that is not the case here

[solid niche]

BYE THAT'S NOT GOOD

I could try to parent them to a folder inside the cart instead

[coarse minnow]

yea that would be better

[solid niche]

alr

wait no

I can't do that

cus then it takes away all of the other stuff

wait no

not that

it takes away the ui list layout

[coarse minnow]

then create a separate frame with only the ui list layout and the food items

[solid niche]

hmm okie dokie

or I could just put it in a folder with the layout

that's what I did

[timid citrus]

if thing:IsA("Frame")

[solid niche]

so how would one do this

[solid niche]

okay so wait

I think maybe

I do get children

and then I do something like if it is a frame then put it on a table yeah?

[timid citrus]

yes

its called filtering

[solid niche]

if I can spell 💀

[timid citrus]

so filter the stuff in the table for what you want, most likely is frames

[solid niche]

okay, but I can't do something like this

so what should I do instead

OHH

should it be in an if statement or smth?

[coarse minnow]

dont do that

[solid niche]

I know

[coarse minnow]

just do cart:getchildren

[solid niche]

it won't work

[coarse minnow]

then when you iterate through it

[solid niche]

kk

[coarse minnow]

check if its a frame

like this:

local itemNames = {}

for i, v in cartItems do
    if v:IsA("Frame") then
        table.insert(itemNames, v.Name) 
    end
end

[solid niche]

kk

[digital vapor]

** You are now Level 6! **

[solid niche]

well

how would I put that in here

[coarse minnow]

do this assuming that each of the frames are named the item

like just modify it to get the name

[solid niche]

sorry that I'm confused

where would I put that script?

[coarse minnow]

in the mouse button 1 click event

[solid niche]

ahh okay okay

[coarse minnow]

so what it does is it goes through the cartItems table, where v is the child of the cart ui, and then it checks whether or not v is a frame, if it is then it appends (adds to the end of the table) the name of v to a table called itemNames

[solid niche]

I don't think I organized it correctly lmao, it wouldn't print the itemnames @coarse minnow

[coarse minnow]

that means you dont have any children in cartItems that are frames

[digital vapor]

** You are now Level 8! **

[coarse minnow]

when you add an item to the cart what kind of instance is it?

[solid niche]

OHH WAIT

I KNOW WHAT IT IS

[coarse minnow]

is it a text label or frame

[solid niche]

HOLD ON

AHAHAHA

WOOPSIES

It's cus I made a folder

but now I don't have to anymore

🤩

YOOO IT'S WORKING

okay so

now

omg now what

idk 😭

@timid citrus @coarse minnow I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH. I could not have done this with out you and sorry you had to handle my stupidity lmao. Thank you so so much.