What does : do in a function?

[AustnBlox (Austin)]

I have seen these functions with “:” in ModuleScripts:

local part = {}

function part:Initiate()

end

return part

What does the “:” do?

[Wyv_n (Wyvern)]

It allows you to use self

ex:

local part = {}
part.mydata = 1

function part:Stuff()
print(self.mydata) -- 1
end

function part.Stuff2()
print(self.mydata) -- nil
end

return part

[Wyv_n (Wyvern)]

How can I use SELF?

If you wanted to use self, you could do: module.increase(module,3) and use self as the first argument name inside the function (which is the module) afterwards But there is syntactic sugar which is much easier to write and much prettier which is replacing . with : and removing the first argument which is the module since it would be included automatically: module:increase(3)

[Wyv_n (Wyvern)]

self is used in OOP (Object Oriented Programming) in metatables.

[SubtotalAnt8185]

If a function has a colon operator and you want to call it with the dot operator, do this:

myObject.myFunction(myObject)

which is equivalent to:

myObject:myFunction()