Attempt to get length of a Instance value

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
1

I’m very little experienced with math.random, so dont judge me please. :slight_smile:

“Attempt to get length of a Instance value”

When i try my script to select a random player, it throws up the above error.

Code:

while true do
	wait(.2)
	-- Required Stuff
	local inRound = game.ReplicatedStorage.InRound
	local playerValue = game.ReplicatedStorage.Players
	local status = game.ReplicatedStorage.Status


	-- Starting
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 5"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 4"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 3"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 2"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 1"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 0"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting.."
	wait(1)

	-- Loading Stuff
	local fight = game.ServerStorage.JudgementHall:Clone()
	fight.Parent = workspace
	local spawns = fight:WaitForChild("Spawns")
	
	-- Changing teams
	
	-- Selecting CHARAS.
	for i, player in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
		if player then
			player.TeamColor = BrickColor.new("Really red")
		end
		
		-- Selecting SANS.
		
		for i, player in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
			local chooseSans = math.random(1, #player)
			if chooseSans.TeamColor == "Smoky grey" or chooseSans.TeamColor == "Really red" then
				chooseSans.TeamColor = BrickColor.new("Cyan")
			end 
		end
	end
end
3 Likes
2

Thats because when you did for i,player in pairs, you are getting the length of the player which is an instance

3

Thanks for explaining, how would i solve this issue may i ask?

4

You have to use game.Players:getplayers() as a local variable then use #thevariable

5

To select a random player, you need to do three things:

  1. Get a Table of Player instances
  • local players = game.Players:GetPlayers()
  1. Generate a random number between 1 and a the number of players. This is where your mistake is. You’re attempting to get the length of a player (huh?), not the length of the list of players.
  • local randomIndex = math.random(#players)
  1. Use that randomly generated number to index the table of players
  • local randomlySelectedPlayer = players[randomIndex]

Full demonstration of the code may look something like this:

local players = game.Players:GetPlayers()
local randomIndex = math.random(#players)
local randomlySelectedPlayer = players[randomIndex]
if randomlySelectedPlayer.TeamColor == "Smoky grey" or randomlySelectedPlayer.TeamColor == "Really red" then
	randomlySelectedPlayer.TeamColor = BrickColor.new("Cyan")
end
3 Likes
6

An aside, heavily repeated code such as

        wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 5"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 4"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 3"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 2"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 1"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting in 0"
	wait(1)
	status.Value = "Starting.."
	wait(1)

is not very nice to look at, there is an obvious improvement you can make here! Consider the use of a loop. This whole snippet of code can be shortened into five lines!
There’s a general concept in programming called DRY - Don’t Repeat Yourself. Usually, whenever you’re writing code that’s very similar, there’s a programming method you can use to shorten the code :smiley:

for countdown = 5, 0, -1 do
    wait(1)
    status.Value = "Starting in " .. tostring(countdown)
end
status.Value = "Starting..."

More reading here if you’re new to loops

1 Like
7

Simple solution: use tostring() to convert the instance to a string or Instance.Name