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Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Hello. I'm am trying to make something that will sort a variable in numerical order. I have used the code from here :http://forums.zuggsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=134087&highlight=.
Now I would like to modify this code so that it :

a) lists the numbers from highest to lowest, instead of lowest to highest as it is now,
b) outputs on one line instead of separate lines, so that I can 'say' it on the MUD, and
c) make it so that it doesn't show any entries with 0 as a value.

If anyone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction I would be most appreciative. Thanks!

This is the function that I'm using:

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 12:03 pm

This post is utter poppycock, best to skip it. I'll leave the contents here for historical purposes :P

There's definitely something funky going on here, and it's a good demonstration of why it's important to use informative errors :P

I played around with this for a bit and ended up here:

Enchanter Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 605

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 2:45 am

Oh dear lord, I'm silly. That makes everything much easier; I've no idea why I was getting an error when I first started using the code in the OP. Back to the questions!

a) change the < on line 5 of the function to a >

b) Hmm... the easiest way to do this, I think, since you can't use %expanddb, would be to change line 3 of the alias to something like

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Thank you for your time and effort! You have answered my questions b and c perfectly, but unfortunately changing the < to an > in the function didn't change the sort order.

And while I'm bothering you, what would be the easiest way to add to the numerical value in a database? If I have a database called colors, with red = 1, blue = 2, how would I add 1 to red with an alias?

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 11:58 am

That is really weird and I honestly have no idea why that isn't working. Changing the sign should be all you need to do; this simpler example works:

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Thanks. I've run into a problem though. It seems if two entries in the database have the same numeric value, it will only show one of them? Is there a way to have it show two with the same value?

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Any ideas? I can't seem to figure out how to make it list them if they have the same value.

Magician Joined: 23 Nov 2004 Posts: 364

You could run through the code looking for duplicates, store the number of duplicates in a table, sort the table of relevance, then replace the matching variables in the sorted list with the respective number of variables in your table with the populations.

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Ok. So I believe the issue is the '#ADDKEY' command in my alias. The help file says it replaces the object. Is there a way to make it not replace but instead create a second entry?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 1:46 pm

No, you can't have two keys of a database with the same name, otherwise how would you access them both?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 1:54 pm

Thinking about it, though, it's a lot easier to do a sort of a table's keys by their values (which is what you're trying to do here) in Lua. All you need is something like:

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Ok I threw all of that into an alias? Two questions though. How do I make it sort my database, and can I have it not show the entries with zero values? Thank you for your time. I'm so close :p

Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 3:42 pm

Set the tbl variable to whatever you like before you run it. Eg, zs.param(1) or zs.var.whatever.

And do that check at the end:

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

I'm sorry but I don't seem to get it. I've tried every variation I can come up with but I just don't see it. I have a database variable called COLORS, that consists of colors and numbers, ie RED = 1, BLUE = 2, GREEN = 1, ORANGE = 2, BLACK = 0. How do I get that table to be sorted high to low and not list the colors with a zero value? This is what I have as a function:

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 2:05 pm

Firstly, you didn't copy the code correctly.

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Thank you very much! Now my last question is how do I get it to output it to the mud on a single line?
This was the old alias code, and I was able to use %replace on the string which was awesome:

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

How bout just sending it to the mud in one line? Like in a say?

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:40 pm

Sorry about that; I read this thread at work, which marked it as read, but didn't have time to write any code. Basically, you just need to build a string in the same way that script does:

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

This gives me an error : Error parsing command: attempt to call field '?' (a number value) (line 11), then Stack trace:[string "code"]:11:in main chunk"

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 11:39 pm

Realised I missed out a couple of dots between tbl[v] and ". ". It should read tbl[v] .. ". " - does that fix it?

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

Beautiful! Works great. Now the only thing left is getting it to substitute. I have been playing with zs.sub, but can't seem to figure out how to get it to substitute with values from a CMud database variable. So that in the string the RED is 8, will be JACK is 8, substituting the RED with the value of RED in a @names database variable. I was using :

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 3:15 pm

#sub is used specifically in triggers to replace the text in the screen. zs.replace is the same as the %replace function, or you can use string.gsub.

Wanderer Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 50

When I try to use any of those I get errors: Error parsing command: attempt to index global 'names' (a nil value) (line 15), and then Stack trace: [string "code"]:15:in main chunk"

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 9:04 pm

Thinking about it, I've been a bit stupid. You shouldn't use a variable name of "string" because it overwrites the string table that contains all the string-related functions. You'll want to change that.

Secondly, strings in Lua need "" around them, so it needs to be "RED". Thirdly, the error is telling you exactly what's wrong - the global "names" you're referring to doesn't have a value, because it's a zMUD variable, not a Lua variable. You want zs.var.names.RED, which I think will work.