Should I be using Local Variable more

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#1

So I have had this question that popped up into my mind this morning, and I would just like to ask it,

Do I need to be using local variables more and should I stop using global variables and only use local variables? From a lot of the scripts that I have seen on the dev forum, almost none of them use global variables. Is there even a point in using global variables? Thanks for helping me out

Have a wonderful day!!!

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#2

You should always be using local variables unless the situation requires it (which is quite rare). Local variables have a slightly lower performance footprint too, so your game will be a tiny bit faster. There aren’t many cases that require a global variable:

  • If you have a variable in a function that needs to be accessed later then either use return or define the variable outside of the function.
  • If you have a variable in an if statement then that too can be avoided by defining a variable beforehand.

A couple of tips with variables:

  • When defining a variable you don’t always have to have a value if you are changing it later - you can just use local Variable with no =.
  • You can define multiple variables by doing local VarOne, VarTwo = 1, "Two".
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Local variable and a normal variable
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#3

what do you mean by this? sorry I am quite new to scripting, could you please explain what this means if you don’t mid. Thank you!

#4

There is pretty much no point in using global variables as i’m pretty sure you will never need them. You can do everything and more with a local variable rather than a global one.

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#5

Oh right, so I won’t need to use global variables ever right?

#6

Yeah. Global variables are technically useless.

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#7

No problem! Always good to ask questions. Basically, what I’m saying is that you can create a variable - but it doesn’t have to have a value. For example:

local Number
print(Number)

Number = 1
print(Number)

The first part will print nil because there is no value assigned to Number. The second part will print 1 because there is now a value for Number.

PS: If my original post was helpful, consider marking it as the solution.

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#8

oh right, so later on we can change the value of the local variable that we have assigned earlier on without any value.

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#9

It was really helpful and since you were the first to reply I had solutioned it previously : D

#10

Yep. You can also use the multiple variable trick with blank variables, for example:

local Number, Letter
print(Number)
print(Letter)

Number = 1
Letter = "A"
print(Number)
print(Letter)

Again, the first two will print nil and the second two will print 1 and A respectively.

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#11

oh yh, I see, now I understand this a little better, thank you for helping me, I really appreciate it, the dev forum is actually helping me a lot to understand scripting a lot better. Thanks so much!!!