The Best Way To Save Player Data

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Overall, I would recommend using tables instead. Strings are useful for storing one thing, but once you have more than one item in the same category, it can get complicated without using tables. For example:

local Data = "SMG" -- This is fine
local Data2 = {
Weapon = "SMG" -- Unnecessary 
}

In this situation, using a string makes sense, since it’s just one value. However, when you have multiple, such as a set of weapons, it can get complicated, and it gets hard to store metadata. For example:

local Weapons = "SMG|Sniper|Pistol"
local WeaponList = string.split(Weapons,"|") -- Not good

local BetterWeaponList = {
	SMG = {
		Firerate = 50
		ReloadTime = 1.35
	}
	Sniper = {
		Firerate = 0.35
		ReloadTime = 2
	}
	Pistol = {
		Firerate = 10
		ReloadTime = 1.25
	}
}

So far I’ve only talked about storing static data, but the same thing applies to PlayerData. For example:

local PlayerData = {
	-- These would be individual keys in a datastore, not all in one table
	UserId_284833 = {
		Coins = 50
		Gems = 10
	}
	UserId_1039244 = {
		Coins = 13000
		Gems = 200
	}
	UserId_9382342 = {
		Coins = 35000
		Gems = 1350
	}
}

You typically want to store your player data in tables, since they’re much easier to work with than strings, and probably more efficient (if you have to split the data and organize it manually, it’s probably less efficient than just having it organized the second you receive it). However, I would advise against making your own data saving system, as it’s been done for you extremely well in community resources. I would recommend either Datastore2 or ProfileService, since they have systems to prevent data loss. While they may seem more complex at first, it’s worth it.

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