Pairs loop skipping over a part of a dictionary

[darkvrn]

cant wrap my head around why its doing this, maybe its cuz im extremely tired rn but yeah

table

cooltable = {

	Example1 = {

		thing = "example1";
	},

	Example2 = {

		thing = "example1";

	},

	Example3 = { --skips this table

		thing = "example3";

	},

	Example4 = {

		thing = "example4";

	},

},

loop

-- for this post lets just say thestring is "example3"
local thestring = "example3"
for i,v in pairs(Module.cooltable) do
	print(v.thing)
	print(thestring)
	if v.thing == thestring then
		print(v)
		return
	else
		print("") --just to seperate output for better reading of the prints
	end
end

output

example1 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example2 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example4 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

[DataSigh]

What is it supposed to do instead? Looks like it’s working properly

[darkvrn]

its skipping Example3

output is

example1 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example2 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example4 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

instead of

example1 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example2 --v.thing
example3 --thestring

example3 --v.thing
example3 --thestring
Example3 -- cuz of the conditioned print

[DataSigh]

That’s because you have this if v.thing == thestring then and set it to return

[darkvrn]

oops, forgot about that return in the other reply

it would still print v tho and the Example4 stuff wouldnt print aswell

[DataSigh]

Oh, that’s because dictionaries loop in an unordered way. If you want it to be ordered loop you need to have it like this:

cooltable = {

	[1] = {

		thing = "example1";
	},

	[2] = {

		thing = "example1";

	},

	[3] = {

		thing = "example3";

	},

	[4] = {

		thing = "example4";

	},

},

[darkvrn]

for some reason i kept another few lines of code under the v.thing if statement that was matching strings and returning

lack of sleep is getting to me