Turtle/CC Lua Code not working

[Haddock]

Any help with this would be appreciated. Apparently there is an error with comparing strings and numbers and receiving strings in the " while r<a do" line but I'm not sure how to fix it. I am inexperienced in general with Lua.

term.clear()
term.setCursorPos(1,1)
 
 
 
print("Length (1st and 3rd side)")
x = read()
print("Width (2nd and 4th side)")
y = read()
 
 
turtle.select(1)
 
function breakPlaceMove()
if turtle.detectDown() then
    turtle.digDown()
    turtle.placeDown()
    turtle.forward()
end
end
 
function runTime(a)
r = 1
while r<a do
  breakPlaceMove()
r = r + 1
end
end
 
runTime(x)
 
turtle.turnLeft()
 
runTime(y)
 
turtle.turnLeft()
 
runTime(x)
 
turtle.turnLeft()
 
runTime(y)

Thanks so much guys.
Love the FTB community
All help appreciated!!!

 

[Guswut]

Try this for that line:

while r<tostring(a) do

 

[Peppe]

What does your read function return? Is it sometime not a number?

If the error you are getting is at the while loop then check if 'a' is nil before going into the while loop?

 

[Haddock]

Try this for that line:

while r<tostring(a) do

I'm afraid this still doesn't work As I still get this error message:

Peppe - 'a' is definitely nil - what you are looking at there is the entire program so what has been defined there is everything.

 

[Peppe]

First issue i see then is there is no read() function, so x and y will always be nil.
print("Length (1st and 3rd side)")
x = read() <--- if read is not a function it will be null or nil LUA speak
print("Width (2nd and 4th side)")
y = read() <--- same as x

So later on your program you call:
runTime(x) <-- which is really sending runtime(nil)

Now in runtime:
function runTime(a)
r = 1
while r<a do
breakPlaceMove()
r = r + 1
end
end

First time it gets to the while loop it will get to:
while 1 < nil do

Comparing 1 to nil makes it sad.

You could fix in a few ways:
Make sure you always pass in a number.
Check for nil before making the comparison
Check for number before doing a numeric comparison -- on this you might have to check if it is nil before checking if it is numeric, depends on the language and i'm not super familiar with lua.

Something like:
function runTime(a)
r = 1
if a not nil then
while r<a do
breakPlaceMove()
r = r + 1
end
end
end

Syntax may not be exactly right. LUA is not my native language

 

[Haddock]

Yup thanks a lot peppe
I simply defined at the beginning of runTime(a) that

a = a + 0

That seemed to assure the computer that it was in fact dealing with a number not a string.
Thanks again man!

 

[Poppycocks]

Yup thanks a lot peppe
I simply defined at the beginning of runTime(a) that

a = a + 0

That seemed to assure the computer that it was in fact dealing with a number not a string.
Thanks again man!

or just a = 0

 

[Haddock]

That wouldn't work as 'a' is an argument passed to runTime.

 

[Poppycocks]

That wouldn't work as 'a' is an argument passed to runTime.

Right, sorry, hadn't nearly read the whole thing, just something that sprung up immediately while I was skimming this thread.

 

[Haddock]

Haha don't worry Appreciate the want to help anyway