How do I index my dictionary ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

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#1

Yes, I am dumb and I do not understand the wiki.

I have created a dictionary for my quotes but I’m going to use math.random to get a random quote and change the GUI text labels to the texts accordingly. How do I do this? (its for a plugin btw)

Code

--Quotes Dictionary
local Quotes = {
	{"Nelson Mandela","Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will"},
	{"Nelson Mandela","It always seems impossible until it's done"},
}

Cheers!

#2

You can’t use math.random() to index it
I’d reccomend

local Quotes = {
    {"Nelson Mandela","It's free real estate"},
}

Then, you can use math.random() to index it and to access the quote, use value[1] for the name (Nelson Mandela) and value[2] for the quote

#3

ok i have changed it

1 Like
#4

You can’t directly index using math.random because it’s a dictionary. You’ll need to turn it into an array.

Also, you can’t have two items in a dictionary with the same key. You can’t have ["-Nelson Mandela"] twice.

Option 1: Just make it an array.

--Quotes Array
local Quotes = {
	{"-Nelson Mandela", "It always seems impossible until it's done"},
	{"-Nelson Mandela", "Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will"},
}
-- Choose random quote
local randomQuoteInfo = Quotes[math.random(1, #Quotes)]

print("Quote: "..randomQuoteInfo[2].." "..randomQuoteInfo[1])
-- Quote: It always seems impossible until it's done -Nelson Mandela

It looks like this is the best option for you since you’re trying to have two items with the same key. You can’t do that, so you’ll have to use an array if you want two to have the same author.

Option 2: Programmatically generate an array.

--Quotes Dictionary
local Quotes = {
	["-Nelson Mandela"] = "It always seems impossible until it's done",
	["-Nelson Mandela"] = "Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will",
}

-- Create array
local QuotesArray = {}
for key, value in pairs(Quotes) do
	table.insert(QuotesArray, {key, value})
end

-- Choose random quote
local randomQuoteInfo = QuotesArray[math.random(1, #QuotesArray)]

print("Quote: "..randomQuoteInfo[2].." "..randomQuoteInfo[1])
-- Quote: It always seems impossible until it's done -Nelson Mandela

Also, please don’t add emoticons to your title. Arguably just my opinion, but it makes the forums seem a bit unprofessional.

9 Likes
#5

Thanks for the effort! :slight_smile:

#6

I think you’re supposed to using something called a refractive index.