Checking A Table With An If Statement

I already know what is wrong with this that im trying to call a table when it needs a string but unsure on how to fix it. Line 16.

local commands = {["speak"] = speak, ["dance"] = dance}



function speak()
		print("I spoke")
end

function dance()
		print("I danced")
end


while true do
local event, player, message = os.pullEvent("chat")
		if message:find("turtle:") and message:find(commands) then -- this is where i know i messed it up so how would i combine this to be a string here instead a table
				commands[message]()
		else
				m.say("I don't know that command")
		end
end

http://pastebin.com/WiYMt29S


So how would i change it so it could look through the table so when u say speak in chat it will find the ["speak"] in the table and execute it. if i understand it right i have the stored list and the stuff to make it executable but just dont know how to connect them.

Sadly if they're going to be entering something like "turtle:speak" then you'll need to do a loop with the way you've done it.

the only way to keep the lookup table would be to add "turtle:" to the front of all your keys in the commands table.

Uh, what? You must be having a really off-day, theoriginalbit. You just snip the "turtle:" part off.

local command = string.match(chatString, "turtle:(.*)")
if commands[command] then
  commands[command]()
end

where does the chatString come from, lyqyd. I am new with the string.match I understand what the symbols mean, but not how to use them properly. Let me fully explain the code so can get a better idea on what looking for.

What I want for this to do is look in the chat using the chatbox from miscPripherals. I want it to look for "turtle:" so that you can still talk to people in chat without messing with the computer, pretty much a "/". The reason I don't want it to look for "turtle: speak" is so that you can either say "turtle: speak" or "turtle: will you please speak for me?" and it will do the same thing, just so that its more interactive. It will check the table with what was said into chat to see if there where any commands said for example "speak" turtle will say in chat "I spoke" otherwise if it couldn't find the command it will say "I don't know that command", as i'm sure you can tell in the code. The code I pasted was just a concept design the turtle will do more that just speak in chat, its just easy to test it this way. The main point to this program will be able to make turtle companions with different personalities and features. Just want to get the logic going before I get into the majority of this project. Plus I feel this will be an interesting way for me to learn about string matching.

Lyqyd, on 09 September 2013 - 09:55 PM said:

Uh, what? You must be having a really off-day, theoriginalbit. You just snip the "turtle:" part off.

Oh wow, I really am/was…

So this is what I have atm.

m = peripheral.wrap("left")
local commands = {["speak"] = speak}

function speak()
  m.say("I spoke")
end 



while true do
local event, player, message = os.pullEvent("chat")
local command = string.match(message, "turtle:(.*)")
  print(command) -- For testing only
  if commands[command] then
    commands[command]()
  else
    m.say("I don't know that command")

  end
end

But no matter what I say in chat it says "I dont know that command" which is suppose to be done when it cant find the command in the table. And it is returning correctly as far as I know if i say turtle: speak then speak is returned to check the table, but it acts like its not there.

bigbaddevil6, on 11 September 2013 - 03:58 AM said:

So this is what I have atm.

m = peripheral.wrap("left")
local commands = {["speak"] = speak}

function speak()
  m.say("I spoke")
end 



while true do
local event, player, message = os.pullEvent("chat")
local command = string.match(message, "turtle:(.*)")
  print(command) -- For testing only
  if commands[command] then
    commands[command]()
  else
    m.say("I don't know that command")

  end
end

But no matter what I say in chat it says "I dont know that command" which is suppose to be done when it cant find the command in the table. And it is returning correctly as far as I know if i say turtle: speak then speak is returned to check the table, but it acts like its not there.

You can't put the function in the table before you create the function.

Your matching code doesn't check for spaces. Replace this:

local command = string.match(message, "turtle:(.*)")

With this:

local command = string.match(message, "turtle:%s*(.*)")

"%s" is a space character, and "*" means zero or more. Therefore this code matches "zero or more space characters" in that area.

Ok, problem is that I need to have it where other stuff can be said with for example "turtle: can you speak for me" or "turtle: speak damn you" and it will still work. At the moment unless i did something wrong it only works with "turtle: speak"

Well, for that, you'd have to iterate through every word in the phrase and check for functions in your table. You can use string.gmatch to accomplish this:

local comStr = string.match(chatLine, "^turtle:%s*(.*)")
if comStr then
  for word in string.gmatch(comStr, "(%S+)") do
    if commands[word] then
      commands[word]()
      break
    end
  end
end

yes it works perfectly thank you very much for your time, any good tutorials on something like this in the tutorial section?