What are spawn() and delay() and what are their purpose?

[GamingExpert0312 (username)]

Hey, the title basically explains the whole point of this topic.

I was wondering what the point of the spawn and delay functions are.

[MrNicNac (nox7)]

They schedule a function to be run in an asynchronous manner of the parent Lua thread.

spawn - Runs a function at the next available Lua yield
delay - Runs a function after a minimum time has passed

They won’t block your existing code.

spawn(function()
	while wait() do
		print("a")
	end
end)

while wait() do
	print("b")
end

Both loops run asynchronously.

[Operatik]

spawn is more simple form of coroutines. Coroutines seems to execute immediately compared to spawn. This includes delay which seems to have inherently the same extra time before execution.

[iamtryingtofindname]

spawn is the same thing as coroutines except spawns do one “wait()” before executing

[colbert2677 (Dreamseeker)]

While it doesn’t explain either of them itself, you might be interested in this lengthy technical discussion about the use of spawn and coroutines. Taught us all involved a good few things:

Coroutines V.S. Spawn()... Which one should I use?

The title says it all… Basically I want to know in what scenarios I should use: spawn(function() -- Script end) And what scenarios I should use: local thing = coroutine.create(function() -- Script end) coroutine.resume(thing) So… When is it best to use spawn(function() and when it is best to use coroutines?

Other than that, spawn and delay are functions intended to essentially pseudothread, meaning code whose execution is independent from the current thread (Lua is single threaded so by this it means code in spawn or delay won’t terminate your threads). One waits a frame (not guaranteed to run), the other waits a bit before running (same deal).

[123dsadqwe]

Simple. Spawn() Lets the code block not yield the script. For example:

You want to make Hi print without waiting 1 second, but you also want to say Bye after one second. Here are the two options you can take:

Print("Hi")
Wait(1)
Print("Bye") -- Output: Hi --> 1 second after -> Bye

or

spawn(function()
   wait(1)
   Print("Bye")
end)

Print("Hi")  -- Output: Hi --> 1 second after -> Bye

Spawn functions are really useful in:
Serversided Cooldowns - Unhackable cooldowns
Waiting for a animation to stop without making the rest of the script wait for it to stop.
Personally, I use spawn() functions alot. I never had any use of them till I understood what they could do.

Here’s why you woul want to use this.
Example: You would want to say Hi, Bye and Goodbye in different times.
You want to say Hi immediately, Bye after a second and Goodbye after 5 seconds.

Print("Hi")
spawn(function()
    wait(1)
    Print("Bye")
end)
wait(5)
Print("Goodbye") -- Since we used a spawn function the script will not wait for 6 seconds. Instead it will wait for 5 exact seconds.