Need assistance with ordered if checks

Posted by Hoplo on Tue 07 Aug 2012 06:27 AM — 5 posts, 23,762 views.

Hoplo Tue 07 Aug 2012 06:27 AM #0

Hello. I am trying to make a function that checks a table with "group" information and tries to cast "heal" when certain conditions are met.

This is what I have so far.


function dohealcheck(name, line, wildcards)
  maintank   =  GetVariable("maintank")
  charname   =  GetVariable("chname")
  ishealing  =  GetVariable("ishealing")
  mhealer    =  GetVariable("mainhealer")
  htarget    = ""

  Note ("Is Healing? "..ishealing)

  if ishealing == "false" then
    if mhealer = "true" then
      for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
        if n == maintank then
          if g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "bad"   or
             g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "v.bad" or
             g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "awful" or
             g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "dying" then
               Note ("Heal Target Found : Main " ..n)
               doheal(n)
               return ishealing
          end -- if
        end -- if
      end -- for
    end -- if
    
    -- Check Dying
    for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
      if g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "dying" or
         g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "awful" then
           Note ("Heal Target Found : Dying " ..n) 
           doheal(n)
           return ishealing
      end
    end
     
    -- Check Self
    if n == charname then
      for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
        if g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "bad"   or
           g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "v.bad" then
             Note ("Heal Target Found : Self " ..n)
             doheal(n)
             return ishealing
        end
      end
    end

    -- Check Everyone Else
    for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
      if g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "v.bad" or
         g.here == "Y" and g.hits == "bad" then
           Note ("Heal Target Found : Group " ..n)
           doheal(n)
           return ishealing
      end
    end
  end           
end -- function

The problem is that despite my best efforts to check for priorities (tank first, then other dying people, then self, etc) the function will run through the entire series of checks on the first person in the group table and then the second and so on.

This is a result of what happens.

Member Hits Here
----------------------------
Yasmin awful Y
Is Healing? false
Heal Target Found : Dying Yasmin

Vitor v.bad Y
Is Healing? true

This is as intended, healing the awful first. However, when the members are switched in order the problem is revealed.

Member Hits Here
---------------------------
Vitor v.bad Y
Is Healing? false
Heal Target Found : Group Vitor

Yasmin awful Y
Is Healing? true

I am sure there is something simple I am missing. Any assistance would be very appreciated.

Fiendish USA Global Moderator Wed 08 Aug 2012 07:50 PM #1

if mhealer = "true" then

is an obvious error. That should be ==. Also please put parentheses around all those conditional groups. You have no idea what those are supposed to do.

Hoplo Mon 13 Aug 2012 08:02 AM #2

Thanks Fiendish. Forgot to put all the checks in ().

What I am trying to do is set up a priority system where a function goes through the entire groupArr table and then will cast a spell on the character with the lowest health.


example: group
--------------------------------------------------
  Bul              bad       rested    standing   
  Rabi             v.bad     rested    standing   
  Rev              bad       rested    standing   
  Tina             awful     rested    standing

and what the groupArr table looks like

groupArr {} that looks like this after tprint (groupArr)


"Bul":
  "pos"="standing"
  "mv"="rested"
  "hits"="bad"
"Rabi":
  "pos"="standing"
  "mv"="rested"
  "hits"="v.bad"
"Rev":
  "pos"="standing"
  "mv"="rested"
  "hits"="bad"
"Tina":
  "pos"="standing"
  "mv"="rested"
  "hits"="awful"

The problem is that no mater what I seem to think of all of the checks run through the first name in the table. So "Bul" will be checked through all the health checks and if it matches ANY of them it gets healed; instead of running through the entire group table and healing the lowest.

I have spent almost a week trying various orders of if checks to no avail. I am sure there is a simple solution I just can not seem to figure it out.

Shadowfyr USA Mon 13 Aug 2012 07:59 PM #3

Uhm.. You first test will always hit on the first person. What you need to be doing is more complex, like:


  temp = -1
  tstat = ""
  if ishealing == "false" then
    if mhealer = "true" then
      for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
        if n == maintank then
          if g.here == "Y" then
            if g.hits = "bad" and tstat <> "v.bad" and tstat <> "awful" and tstat <> "dying" then
              temp = n
              tstat = g.hits
            else
              if g.hits = "v.bad" and tstat <> "awful" and tstat <> "dying" then
                temp = n
                tstat = g.hits
              else
                if g.hits = "awful" and tstats <> "dying" then
                  temp = n
                  tstat = g.hits
                else
                  if ghits = "dying" then
                    temp = n
                    tstat = g.hits
                  end -- if
                end -- if
              end -- if
            end -- if
          end -- if
        end -- if
      end -- for
      if tstat <> "" then
        Note ("Healing Target Found : Main " ..temp)
        doheal(temp)
        return ishealing
      end -- if
    end -- if

No idea if that code is right, BTW, but, basically. And, there is probably some way to simplify it a bit, maybe.. Instead of using strings, if it was using values, like 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. to track the condition, for example, the above could have been solved with (and is a lot less messy):


-- Some earlier point, to cast the results into easily
-- compared integers.
if hit = "bad" then
  g.hits = 1
end
if hit = "v.bad" then
-- etc.

...
  temp = -1
  tstat = ""

...
      for n,g in pairs(groupArr) do
        if n == maintank then
          if g.here == "Y" then
            if g.hits > tstat then
              temp = n
              tstat = g.hits
          end if
        end if
...

You could still do it, with some strange Boolean math, assuming the language allowed it. And some languages let you, I think, created ordered sets, so you create a set, and then when comparing your new value against the set, it automatically knows that 'dying' is higher than 'bad', in that set, but its just easier (if you can't create such sets) to, at some earlier point, like where you receive the conditions from the mud in the first place, to convert them into integer, and work with numbers. ;)

You needed to not just testing against what ever condition there is in each pair, but also have to compare each pair. All your code was doing is looking for the first pair it could find that matched *any* criteria.

Hoplo Mon 13 Aug 2012 11:14 PM #4

Gives me something to work with for time being, thanks :)
And ya i can change the health to a numerical system, either at check or within the actual healing code. Thanks