How do I detect if the first words of a string are a pattern

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
1

You can write your topic however you want, but you need to answer these questions:

  1. What do you want to achieve? Keep it simple and clear!
    So I am making a admin and I want it so you only need to type the first words of a player to run the command on him

  2. What is the issue? Include screenshots / videos if possible!
    I Don’t know how

  3. What solutions have you tried so far? Did you look for solutions on the Developer Hub?
    Search And tried to use :find() but it doesn’t detect if the first words are like the pattern it just detects if it found the pattern in a string

I don’t speak English very good so I hope you know what I meant

2

You could combine string:match alongside string:lower.

An example:

for _,Player in pairs(Players:GetPlayers()) do
    if Player.Name:match(Target) then
         --code
    end
end
--Target here is the person whom the action is being executed on
1 Like
3

I tried it but didn’t work

If someone name was “Test123”
And I type “123” it will detect it but I want so I need to type the first words of it to work

4

Change the match to ``^ … Target", this will require it to match the start. String Patterns (roblox.com)

5

Am new to scripting can you please put it in a script?

6

Modifying @Valkyrop’s script gives us this:

for _,Player in pairs(Players:GetPlayers()) do
    if Player.Name:match("^" .. Target) then
         --code
    end
end
1 Like
7

It didn’t work And if I put random words it still says the player was found

8

@ifkpop is correct, can you share your version of the code?

1 Like
9

It looks something like this

for _,TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
	if TargetPlayer.Name:match("^" ..PlayerName) then
		Run(TargetPlayer)
	end
end
10

What does it look like exactly?

Because you have PlayerName there instead of TargetPlayer.Name that was wrong never mind

11

PlayerName is likely the search query. I would like to see the Players list and PlayerName if that is possible.

1 Like
12

This is the script its inside a textbutton

local Button = script.Parent
local PlayerName = Button.Parent.Player.Text

function Run(TargetPlayer,Speed)
	Button.Run_Event:FireServer(TargetPlayer,Speed)
end

Button.MouseButton1Click:Connect(function()
	if string.lower(PlayerName) == "me" then
		local TargetPlayer = game.Players.LocalPlayer
		Run(TargetPlayer,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
	elseif string.lower(PlayerName) == "all" then
		for _, TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetChildren()) do
			if TargetPlayer:IsA("Player") then
				Run(TargetPlayer,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
			end
		end
	elseif string.lower(PlayerName) == "others" then
		for _, TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetChildren()) do
			if TargetPlayer:IsA("Player") and TargetPlayer.Name ~= game.Players.LocalPlayer.Name then
				Run(TargetPlayer,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
			end
		end
	else
		for _,TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
			if TargetPlayer.Name:match("^" ..PlayerName) then --Error
				Run(TargetPlayer,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
			end
		end
	end
end)
13

You can simplify this code slightly:

PlayerName = PlayerName:lower()

local targets = { game.Players.LocalPlayer }

if PlayerName == "all" or PlayerName == "others" then
	targets = game.Players:GetPlayers()
	if PlayerName == "others" then
		table.remove(targets, table.find(game.Players.LocalPlayer)
	end
else
	for _, TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
		if TargetPlayer.Name:match("^" ..PlayerName) then
			table.insert(targets, TargetPlayer)
		end
	end
end

for _, target in pairs(targets) do
	Run(target,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
end

Edit: This

May also be written as:

else
	for _, TargetPlayer in pairs(game.Players:GetPlayers()) do
		if TargetPlayer.Name:match("^" ..PlayerName) then
			Run(TargetPlayer,tonumber(Button.Parent.Speed.Text))
		end
	end
	return
end
14

Nvm am stupid I put the PlayerName variable outside the function Now it works Thank you very much I spent days trying to fix this problem

2 Likes
15

Thank you I have already found the problem

I put the PlayerName variable outside the function so the PlayerName variable had nothing stored in it

16

I recommend using the debugger next time!

It lets you step through your code line-by-line and see what the variables are as you go.

1 Like
17

Ain’t no way I am learning of a debugger now.

I’ve always cursed Roblox Studio for not having it, but I just didn’t know it existed! Thanks a lot for letting me know! You have just save me hours of debugging!

1 Like
18

Thank you for helping me too

This problem toke days the fix

and thanks for telling me a way to debug