New to scripting... need some help plz!

[MTM]

Greetings all. I've just started trying to learn how to use scripting and not having much success. I want to create a script tied to an F10 radio item that will show me my wingman's fuel percentage. I got that to work using the following script...

local a1 = Unit.getByName('Hornet 1-1')
local b1 = Unit.getFuel(a1)
local c1 = math.floor(b1*10000)/100
trigger.action.outText("Hornet 1-1 Fuel Remaining: "..c1.."%",10)  

 

Only problem is I get an error message if my wingman is already dead. So, I'm guessing I need an if-then condition to tell the script to only run if my wingman is still alive. I know it can be done using the DCS built-in trigger system, but I'd really like to learn how to do it in LUA. 

Anyone want to share their wisdom on this? I have no prior experience with coding, so this is uncharted territory for me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Zyll]

a1 will evaluate to nil if it doesn't exist, so you can simply wrap the lines that follow in an if clause:

if a1 != nil then
...
end



Zyll @ TAW

[MTM]

Thanks Zyll, that worked! It didn't like != for some reason so I tried ~= and it worked with that. Thanks for your help!

[Zyll]

Whoops! You are right, got my nots mixed up, but you are on the ball.

Zyll @ TAW

[cfrag]

9 hours ago, Zyll said:

if a1 ~= nil then
...
end

In Lua, you can simplify that to 

if a1 then 
 ...
end

It's a matter of preference - to me that is more readable, to others it may seem strange, so use whatever works best for you

Edited December 13, 2023 by cfrag