I’ve been scripting for 2-3 months, and most of my knowledge came from YouTube; but over time, I’ve been noticing that my coding is really bad, and it wasn’t really improving. Sometimes, when I’m coding, I also don’t really know what I’m doing, or I understand it really vaguely.
In your opinion; should I just continue what I’m doing but just use the API and DevForum from now on and gradually fix my coding overtime as I learn, or should I completely restart my process of learning to script?
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You just need to learn to make your code more efficient. Or thats what I would do.
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Yeah most of the time youtube videos don’t have the best coding practices. Hence it is probably a better idea to learn from official sources, and there is also #help-and-feedback:code-review for if you are unhappy with your code that works, and you know it can be better.
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Everything you learn may come in handy one day, trust me. Some things may be useless for a period but you’ll make use of some of it later on. I recommend continuing to learn. If you have a hard time understanding something, you can always ask here. If you don’t know how to do something, do the research for it or ask here.
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Practice coding and try new stuff or try challenging yourself to get the same result from your code but in a different way and choose the most effective way.
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The one thing I cannot express enough is Don’t Restart. You’ve put in all that time to learn, and although many YouTube tutorials are not the best. You can still learn from them. But I would recommend you looking on the DevForum and the API also. And another thing I have noticed, at least for myself, is that you don’t notice you getting better. But you are. You can write code. That’s better than what you did when you started.
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Well there is no such thing as unlearning. You just have to learn more and more.
What changes are the habits and coding practices as @sjr04 mentions. For that here are more resources to learn from that I have bookmarked just in case lol from browsing the dev forums.
Various other projects, quality is up to you to decide as I haven’t researched that much for each project though.
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Can it be useful to take some time to learn Lua itself before diving into ROBLOX again? I’ve heard before that both Lua & Luau are very similar, but I’m not sure how useful it’ll be to learn pure Lua.
Luau is still in beta so you technically can’t use it in published games right now 
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For general purposes sure? Roblox has disabled a lot of libraries you’ll find in vanilla Lua though but it is good to expand your general knowledge.
this is incorrect
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There isn’t much of a difference. Though, I just recommend going through the basics of Lua and then continue to Roblox.
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Really! Hmm I was unaware then 
thanks for the update
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Whoops I must have been thinking of the Luau Type Checking Beta
But back to the OP
I would say if you don’t know how to use arrays and other tables I would learn those. They can be useful and you need to stray away from using a whole load of if then statements
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Rather than just using youtube I think you should maybe get a book that teaches lua or even download an app or take a course of some sort that helps you code.
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Do your own things and use newer tutorials or other sources. Even if you’re unhappy with your learning pace, all you can do is continue.
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Are there any good Lua books? I’m considering getting a Lua book, but I dunno how good a majority of them are.
Just refer to Roblox Documentation for Roblox API features and functions.
You can also look into Lua 5.0 Documentation to learn more about Lua, also keep in mind Roblox has its own modified version while preserving the original one.
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There is nothing wrong with learning from YouTube. If you don’t understand what your code is doing, then rewatch the video, utilize the Roblox API, or ask for clarification for someone with experience. Some people have mentioned that you might learn bad coding practices, but that is not true for all YouTube channels. I personally have my own YouTube channel, and I know I don’t promote bad practices because I have about 11 years of experience, a degree in Computer Science, and currently work full time as a software developer. If you have questions about coding, feel free to reach out to me or join my Discord. Also, could you clarify what exactly is “wrong” with your code? Do you believe it is messy, inefficient, not functional? Or is your biggest concern that you just don’t understand how it works?
I also start learning Rolbox from Youtube. @Alvin_Blox does a great job in explaining how to code in Roblox.
When my code becomes too ugly to maintain, I realize that I need to learn more. Now I am learning Roblox-ts, it is some professional level stuff. But it deserves the effort. ( But i have some experience in JavaScript so the transition is easy).
To summarize, Youtube is good start. But game development requires a lot. If you keep making games, sooner or later you will get there.
I’ve been scripting for a while now. I learnt most of my scripting from scratch, watching YT videos or looking at devForum topics. Personally, the best way to improve at coding is simply to script more and more. The more you script and implement stuff, the more you will take in and remember. Every time you think that you don’t understand something, go ahead and ask others or do some research on external websites. I’d advise learning the basics such as all the different functions and learning how to use remotes before going into more depth.