What does 'self' mean?

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

Put simply, what does

self

mean?
I see it in module scripts, and i don’t understand yet. For example, in Datastore2 there’s this:

function Datastore2:Debug(...)
    if self.debug then
        print(...)
    end
end

It’s probably simple, but I don’t understand right now.

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Confused about self
#2

self refers to the same table when it is called the way you did, if it is with dot it does not work Will give nil. That’s all, more information: Functions | Roblox Creator Documentation

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#3

Actually, it does work with dot but you would have to manually pass the self variable.

game:GetService('ReplicatedStorage')
-- is the same as
game.GetService(game, 'ReplicatedStorage')

And when defining the function,

function Datastore2:Debug(...)
-- is the same as
function Datastore2.Debug(self, ...)
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#4

Self refers to a table inside a module script or normal script, here is a example:

local module = {}

self:Collect() -- this means module:Collect()

I’m sure this is what self means.

#5

You can’t define a function/method like that.

You would have to do

local module = {
    ['Collect'] = function(self)
        print('collect', self)
    end;
}

or

local module = {}

function module.Collect(self)
    print('collect', self)
end

or

function module:Collect()
    print('collect', self)
end

All three of those are the exact same thing.

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#6

self is a way to refer to the table you’re performing a method on. Doing something like “Instance.Clone(Instance)” is the same as “Instance:Clone()”. The only difference is that methods that use the colon like :Clone() pass self automatically, while using Instance.Clone(Instance) means you need to pass the Instance itself manually

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