Deep WaitForChild and FindFirstChild functions

Feature Requests Engine Features
#1

Chaining WaitForChild and FindFirstChild can generate lots of junk variables and redundant logic.

Consider:

local remoteFolderRbx = ReplicatedStorage:FindFirstChild('Remote')
local avatarEditingRemoteFolderRbx = if remoteFolderRbx then remoteFolderRbx:FindFirstChild('AvatarEditing') else nil
local resnapRemoteRbx = if avatarEditingRemoteFolderRbx then avatarEditingRemoteFolderRbx:FindFirstChild('Resnap') else nil

if resnapRemoteRbx then
	resnapRemoteRbx:FireClient(player)
end

The variables remoteFolderRbx and avatarEditingRemoteFolderRbx only exist so that I can introduce a branch that tells the operation whether to continue or not. It would be more concise and performant to use a single function that handles this all-or-nothing operation for me.

local resnapRemoteRbx = ReplicatedStorage:Find('Remote.AvatarEditing.Resnap')

Keeps the code cleaner and performs better.

3 Likes
#2

If I’m not mistaken, you can literally use FirstFirstChild’s recursive boolean to iterate through all descendants and find it

link

. Also, why not just do local resnapRemoteRbx = ReplicatedStorage.Remote.AvatarEditing.Resnap ?

#3

Well going off you’ve got fireclient server doesn’t need to wait for things to load, plus you can do a recursive search with findfirstchild if you add true to the second parameter.

#4

^ Using the second parameter for FindFirstChild is not always an option if there can be multiple descendants of the same name. OP’s function suggestion makes a lot more sense imo.

You can already do something similar. Here is my preferred version:

-- Usage:
getInstance(game.ReplicatedStorage, "Remote", "AvatarEditing", "Resnap")

-- If the target instance is not found, nil is returned as the first value, and the last found child as the second value
function getInstance(parent: Instance?, ...: string): (Instance | nil, Instance?)
	if parent then
		local nestedAmount = select("#", ...)

		local instance = parent

		for index = 1, nestedAmount do
			local name = select(index, ...)
			local currentChild = instance:FindFirstChild(name)

			if not currentChild then
				return nil, instance
			end

			instance = currentChild
		end

		return instance
	end

	return nil, nil
end

But having a built in function would be nice.

#5

I do unfortunately see a potential issue with needing to escape instance-names which include dots within either their name or one of their ancestors’ names, though. As a bit of reference, the functions GetFullName and debug.info("s") are a bit of a nightmare to use because they don’t support any escape-characters and hence it can be ambiguous as to what instance they are referring to; just in-case the actual referenced instance actually has a dot anywhere in its name or one of its ancestors’ names. For example, with the following simplified hierarchy; if we were to search for Workspace.Model.Test.Part:

Workspace
├── Model
│   └── Test.Part
│   └── Test

It’s ambigious as to whether we are searching for “Test.Part” under “Model” which exists; or “Part” under “Test” which doesn’t exist and hence should return nil. Ideally, we’d like to have way of referencing both so we’d either need to have an escape character in-order to clear up any ambiguity without making certain instances inaccessible through the method; or alternatively a seperate way to reference the path which doesn’t see this ambiguity limitation.

#6

so… why does the 2nd argument of FindFirstChild not work for you in this scenario?

Why would you need to find a specific object that has the same name as multiple other objects and why would you have a findable object have the same names as other objects in the first place :confused:

isn’t Instance | nil the same exact thing as Instance??