Need help on tables

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

Hello everyone, I want to make a leaderboard for a school game, but I need help because it is not arranged in order (the numbers).

How can I arrange in ascending order this type of table :

local TheTable = {
	["Player1"] = 3,
	["Player2"] = 1,
	["Player3"] = 10,
	["Player4"] = 5,
}

Help me please.

#2

maybe this?

table.sort(TheTable)
#3

I am trying this, thank you for the fast answer

1 Like
#4

You can use table.sort()

table.sort(TheTable, function(a, b)
	return a > b
end)
#5

This don’t work, when I try to print the table, it return nil

#6

I am trying, thank you too (30)

#7 
local TheTable = {
	Player1 = 3,
	Player2 = 1,
	Player3 = 10,
	Player4 =  5,
}

function sortTable()
    table.sort(TheTable, function(a, b)
        return a > b
    end)
end

sortTable()
#8

Here the output, it don’t work,
image

#9

I am trying this, hope this work : )

#10

It don’t work, is this correct :

local TheTable = {
	Player1 = 3,
	Player2 = 1,
	Player3 = 10,
	Player4 =  5,
}

print(TheTable)

function sortTable()
	table.sort(TheTable, function(a, b)
		return a > b
	end)
end

sortTable()

print(TheTable)

print(sortTable())
#11

The print of sortTable is nil (30)

#12

Everybody is suggesting array sorting, which doesn’t work in this instance (you have a dictionary). The solution is simple: make an array from your dictionary, and sort the array. I’ll explain why using a dictionary here doesn’t work, but first - here’s a function for that:

local function sortDict(dict: { [any]: any })
    local arr = {}
    for key, value in pairs(dict) do
        table.insert(arr, { Key = key, Val = value })
    end

    table.sort(arr, function(a, b)
        return a.Val > b.Val
    end)

    return arr
end

The reason your output isn’t sorted is simple: dictionaries don’t have an order. They use a HashMap/HashTable (not sure which) behind the scenes, so they have some intrinsic ordering, but you can’t change it so that “Player2” appears before “Player1”, because it’s an unordered collection. I’m using programming terms commonly found in other programming languages. Read more here.

1 Like
#13

This work but how can I found the player and his Value for the leaderboards textlabels ?

#14

You need to index the array elements:

for _, playerData in ipairs(sortedTable)
    -- Of course you'd have your own way of getting the labels here
    local nameTextLabel: TextLabel, pointsTextLabel: TextLabel

    nameTextLabel.Text = playerData.Key
    pointsTextLabel.Text = playerData.Val
end

You can change the “Key” and “Val” throughout your code to be something like “Name” and “Points” - this will make reading it much easier, but it comes at the cost of restricting the function to the specific script (you can still use it of course, but it wouldn’t make sense).

#15

Ok thank you very much :heart:, I was stuck with this since yersteday

1 Like
#16

You’re welcome! Please mark my post as a solution so other people can find the answer quickly (this is a rather common problem). Good luck with the game!

#17

I found the problem, when using table.sort on dictionaries, it sorts the keys (Player1, Player2, Player3, Player4) and not the values (3, 1, 10, 5)

local TheTable = {
	Player1 = 3,
	Player2 = 1,
	Player3 = 10,
	Player4 = 5,
}

function sortTable()
    local noKeys = {}
    for player, value in TheTable do
        local playerNum = string.gsub(player, "%a", "")
        table.insert(noKeys, string.format("%dP%f", value, playerNum)
    end
    table.sort(noKeys, function(a, b)
        return a > b
    end)
    for player, _ in TheTable do
        local value
        for _, v in noKeys do
            local playerNum = string.split(v, "P")[3]
            if "Player"..playerNum == player then
                value = string.split(v, "P")[1]
                break
            end
        end
        player = value
    end
    noKeys = nil
    return TheTable
end

edit: I post this and see a solution that spans just a few lines (oof)

#18

Thank you for your answer too, some people will maybe use your issue. Thank you very much too :heart:

1 Like
#19

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