Is there a way to unstring a string?

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#1

(i am trying to get an textbox input into a instance)
I want to make a way where you could basically do:

print(unstring("game.Name"))

and it would print “Baseplate” or something like that.
I know tonumber but it doesn’t work when it’s not a number and returns nil.

I looked on google but found nothing.

Any help appreciated.

#2

So you want to create function which is going to create Instance out of a string?

1 Like
#3

It basically takes “game.Name” and returns “Baseplate”.

#4

I am kinda confused since services are parent of a game and how it should then possibly return “Baseplate”?

#5

The name of game is baseplate and its case sensitive because of what the game name is.

#6

Do you mean like, running code with a string? eg :
"print("hello")" and then it runs the code inside the string?

#7

Not that I don’t mean loadstring but I mean

print(unstring("game.Name")) --returns the name of the game
#8

Well you can do something similar with loadstring

print(loadstring("return game.Name")())

Sorry if I misunderstood

#9

Yes.
You could have found the result if you phrased it differently, e.g. “convert string to instance”.

There’s no official function for it, however, someone made a clever snippet of code which should do exactly what you want:

local String = "" -- your string
local segments = String:split(".")
local instance = game --location to search
for i,v in pairs(segments) do
	instance = instance[v]
end
print(instance.ClassName,typeof(instance)) -- ClassName, "Instance"

EDIT: I decided to add onto this and turn it into a function:

local String = "" -- your string

local function Unstring(str)
	local instance = game
	local segments = str:split(".")
	for i,v in pairs(segments) do
		instance = instance[v]
	end
	segments = nil
	return instance
end

print(typeof(Unstring(String))) -- Instance
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#11

Please note that loadstring is limited to the server only

#12

Why are you trying to do this?

There’s almost definitely a better way to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to achieve.

Also, enabling loadstring could open your game up for all sorts of exploits. On top of that, its slooooow.

#13

True what other ways are there?

#14

Well, @xLawOut had one good way by splitting the string.

But you misunderstood me.

What do you want to do? What is your high-level goal? Why would you want this function in the first place?

#15

You’ll want to use ipairs to guarantee the correct order every time.

And probably some preparations for non existent instances where this will error. Wrapping in a pcall or breaking if instance is nil may help.

There is also no need to set segments to nil afterwards.

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#16

I don’t really understand the question. Can’t you just do:

local var = game.Name
print(var)
#17

Well I am taking from a text box. (which is a string)

#18

Well, actually, now I realize, this would be a great feature, example:
toobject(‘game.workspace’)

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#19

And where does the text box get that string from? What if you went directly to the source and used something like a Remote/Bindable Event to get the same thing?

#20

So I am making a custom command line where someone inserts explorer.exe and it makes it visible (im working on a computer btw)

#21

The string comes from script.Parent.CommandLine