How to save data from folder into a dictionary?

[Lightning_Game27 (Elitriare)]

I have a datastore script that saves everything within a certain folder.

This is the folder:

Everything within this folder is for saving. Our script has it so that if a folder is inputted, it will check if the folder has a folder until it finds a Value object. The folders will be stored within a table. This is the Save function:

local function Save(folder, data) -- Input the folder to save. data is a table	
	for _, v in pairs(folder:GetChildren()) do
		if v:IsA('Folder') then
			print(v.Name, data)
			Save(v, data[folder.Name])
		else
			print(v.Name, data, folder.Name)
			data[folder.Name][v.Name] = v.Value 
		end
	end
end

In this case, ‘data’ is a table in which everything is supposed to be stored. Unfortunately, this is the error that appears, along with the print statement.

The erroring line of code is when the second Save() within the Save() is called.

if v:IsA('Folder') then
			print(v.Name, data)
			Save(v, data[folder.Name]) -- This is erroring

I have tried multiple solutions, but none of them work. The first print statement in the error message shows LandVehicles and an empty table. The second print shows Camaro and nil. Nil should instead have a table like so:

{
[LandVehicles]
}

Is there any way to fix this issue?

[N3F1R (Nef)]

1. Make sure that data[folder.Name] is not nil . If it is nil , then you should initialize it as an empty table before calling Save(v, data[folder.Name]) . You can do this by adding a line of code like data[folder.Name] = {} before calling Save(v, data[folder.Name]) .
2. Make sure that folder.Name is a valid key in the data table. If folder.Name is not a valid key, then data[folder.Name] will be nil . You should check if folder.Name is a valid key in the data table before calling Save(v, data[folder.Name]) .
3. Make sure that v is actually a Folder object. If v is not a Folder object, then Save(v, data[folder.Name]) will not be called and the error will not occur. You can add some debugging code to print the type of v to see if it is actually a Folder object.
4. Make sure that v has children. If v does not have any children, then the for loop in the Save function will not execute and Save(v, data[folder.Name]) will not be called. You can add some debugging code to print the number of children v has to see if this is the issue.

[Lightning_Game27 (Elitriare)]

How can I check whether the key is valid in the table?

[Lightning_Game27 (Elitriare)]

I tried out solution 2. Now the script gets past the recurring stage but then gets stuck in the value setting stage, saying that the table does not exist…?

[Lightning_Game27 (Elitriare)]

I tried using step 2 for the else statement as well. Now, there are no errors and it is printing the data saved accurately. The only fault is that the final table saved only contains leaderstats folder and not all the other folders.

The code right now:

local function Save(folder : Instance, data : {})	
	print(data)
	for _, v in pairs(folder:GetChildren()) do
		if v:IsA('Folder') then
			data[folder.Name] = {}
			print(v.Name, data)
			Save(v, data[folder.Name])
		else
			data[folder.Name] = {}
			print(v.Name, v.Value, data[folder.Name], folder.Name)
			data[folder.Name][v.Name] = v.Value 
		end
	end
end

This is the print statements at the beginning:

This is the print statements at the end:

Why is the table being constantly overwritten? It’s not adding anything to the table, just completely overwriting it.

Any solutions?

[Lightning_Game27 (Elitriare)]

Solved this problem. Turns out, we just thought about it the wrong way. data[folder.Name] just needs to be equal to the function. Changed the function so it returns the dictionary.

local function ReturnDictionary(folder : Instance)	
	local Dictionary = {}
	
	for _, v in ipairs(folder:GetChildren()) do
		if v:IsA('Folder') then
			Dictionary[v.Name] = ReturnDictionary(v)
		elseif v:IsA("ValueBase") or v.ClassName:match("Value") then
			Dictionary[v.Name] = v.Value
		end
	end
	
	return Dictionary
end

Thanks to Colbert