how do i prevent "Attempt to index nil" error

[fallow pier]

if player.Character:FindFirstChild(itemName) then
  player.Character:FindFirstChild(itemName):Destroy()
end

--OR

if player.Character:FindFirstChild(itemName) ~= nil then
  player.Character:FindFirstChild(itemName):Destroy()
end

If the thing is 'nil' ignore the code but instead it errors and the whole script breaks. both variants of this script breaks. how do i have the server only run the code if it isn't nil. And without using 'else' because else what? i dont want to put

else warn("no item")
``` because the code is within a for loop checking for 100 different items and that's 99 warns i dont want filling up the output

[hearty harbor]

the top one should work fine, what's the issue when you run it?

[fallow pier]

test with 2 players

[hearty harbor]

that would be because player.Character is nil

[fallow pier]

so a task.wait(1) might fix it?

[hearty harbor]

do if player.Character and player.Character:FindFirstChild(itemName) then instead

[fallow pier]

ah okay

let me test that

yoo cheers btw i ended up using

local character = player.CharacterAdded:Wait()

i added SOLVED tag

[soft breach]

you may wanna do local character = player.Character or player.CharacterAdded:Wait(), so if the character is already loaded it'll grab it, otherwise you'd be waiting for the next time the character is added

[fallow pier]

alr cheers ill do that

i assume because every time i call character its running the whole wait thing agian