Seeking Guidance for Inventory System using Tables - Code Review and Improvement Suggestions

[slayguy07 (randomDev)]

I’ve been working on creating an inventory system using Lua tables. Initially, I had implemented the system using string values inside a folder, but I wanted to explore the possibility of using tables for better organization. I would greatly appreciate your expertise in reviewing my code and suggesting potential improvements.

I’ve developed an inventory system where players can own various items. However, as a beginner and not having much experience with tables, I have concerns about the efficiency and overall quality of my code

possibleItems={
	
	melonseed={type="seed",maxStack=100},
	melon={type="crop",maxStack=20}
}

local InventoryModule = {}


--//Otehr Functions//--
local function numerotateItemNames(itemTable, baseName)
	local highestIndex = 0

	-- Find the highest index in the table
	for itemName, _ in pairs(itemTable) do
		local index = tonumber(itemName:match(baseName .. "(%d+)"))
		if index and index > highestIndex then
			highestIndex = index
		end
	end

	-- Increment the highest index to get the next available index
	local nextIndex = highestIndex + 1

	return baseName .. nextIndex
end

local function splitStacks(player) --Splits the stacks that exceed the maxStackLimit
	local inventory = InventoryModule[player.Name].items

	for itemName, itemData in pairs(inventory) do
		if itemData.quantity > possibleItems[itemData.name].maxStack then
			while itemData.quantity > possibleItems[itemData.name].maxStack do
				itemData.quantity = itemData.quantity - possibleItems[itemData.name].maxStack

				local newname = numerotateItemNames(inventory, itemData.name)
				print(newname)
				-- Create a new item entry in the inventory
				inventory[newname] = {
					name = itemData.name,
					quantity = possibleItems[itemData.name].maxStack
				}
			end
		end
	end
end
-----------------------

--///MAIN FUNCTIONS///--
function InventoryModule:AddInventory(player) --//Function that adds an inventory to a player
	
	local inventory={
		items={	
		}
	}
	if not InventoryModule[player.Name] then
		InventoryModule[player.Name]=inventory
	else
		warn	("inventory already exists")
	end
	
end

function InventoryModule:AddItem(player,item,quantity)  --adds an item to the players inventory e.g(melonseed)
	
	local inventory=InventoryModule[player.Name].items

	if InventoryModule[player.Name] then
	
		for itemName,itemData in pairs(inventory) do	--if script finds item with the same baseName then adds the quantity to it
	
			if itemData.name==item then
	
				itemData.quantity+=quantity
				splitStacks(player)
				return
				
			end
		end
		--//Else creates a new item with the baseName and quantity
		inventory[item]={name=item,quantity=quantity}
		
		splitStacks(player)
		
	else	
		warn("inventory does not exist !")	
	end
end

function InventoryModule:RemoveItem(player,item,quantity) --removes a specific item from the players inventory e.g(melonseed1)

	local inventory=InventoryModule[player.Name].items
	
	if InventoryModule[player.Name] and inventory[item] then

		inventory[item].quantity-=quantity
		
		if 	inventory[item].quantity<0 or inventory[item].quantity==0 then
			
			inventory[item].quantity=0
			inventory[item]=nil
			
		end
			
	else		
		warn("inventory or item does not exist !")	
	end
	
end

------------------------



--//DebbugingFunctions//--
function InventoryModule:DebugPrint(plr)
	local inventory = InventoryModule[plr.Name]
	if inventory then
		for itemName, itemData in pairs(inventory.items) do
			print(itemName, itemData.quantity)
		end
	end
end

return InventoryModule
--------------------------

[lovableschoolgirl (lovable)]

Your module is reasonably optimised already. However I have some improvements:

First of all, don’t use player.Name; use player.UserId (or just player) because players can change their usernames.

Secondly,

function InventoryModule:AddItem(player,item,quantity)  --adds an item to the players inventory e.g(melonseed)
	
	local inventory=InventoryModule[player.Name].items

	if InventoryModule[player.Name] then

should be

function InventoryModule:AddItem(player, item, quantity) --adds an item to the player's inventory (e.g melonseed)
	local inventory = InventoryModule[player.UserId]
	if inventory then
		local items = inventory.items
		-- replace references to "inventory" with "items"...