dictionary help/DataStore - lua

Question

The Issue is I have a dictionary that holds all my data and its supposed to be able to turn into a directorys in replicated storage with all the values being strings then turn back into a dictionary with all the keys when the player leave. However, I cant figure out how to turn into a dictionary(With keys).
ive sat for a few hours testing things but after the first layer of values I cant get figure out a way to get the deeper values and keys into the table
local DataTable =
{
["DontSave_Values"] =
{
["Stamina"] = 100;
};
["DontSave_Debounces"] =
{
};
["TestData"] = 1;
["Ship"] =
{
["Hull"] = "Large_Ship";
["Mast"] = "Iron_Tall";
["Crew"] =
{
["Joe One"] =
{
["Shirt"] = "Blue";
["Pants"] = "Green"
};
["Joe Two"] =
{
["Shirt"] = "Silver";
["Pants"] = "Brown";
["Kids"] =
{
["Joe Mama1"] =
{
["Age"] = 5
};
["Joe Mama2"]=
{
["Age"] = 6
};
}
};
}
};
["Level"] =
{
};
["Exp"] =
{
};
}
------Test to see if its an array
function isArray(Variable)
local Test = pcall(function()
local VarBreak = (Variable.." ")
end)
if Test == false then
return true
else
return false
end
end
------TURNS INTO FOLDERS
function CreateGameDirectory(Player, Data)
local mainFolder = Instance.new("Folder")
mainFolder.Parent = game.ReplicatedStorage
mainFolder.Name = Player.UserId
local function IterateDictionary(Array, mainFolder)
local CurrentDirectory = mainFolder
for i,v in pairs(Array) do
if isArray(v) then
CurrentDirectory = Instance.new("Folder", mainFolder)
CurrentDirectory.Name = i
for o,p in pairs(v) do
if isArray(p) then
local TemporaryDir = Instance.new("Folder", CurrentDirectory)
TemporaryDir.Name = o
IterateDictionary(p, TemporaryDir)
else
local NewValue = Instance.new("StringValue", CurrentDirectory)
NewValue.Name = o
NewValue.Value = p
end
end
else
local value = Instance.new("StringValue", mainFolder)
value.Name = i
value.Value = v
end
end
end
IterateDictionary(Data, mainFolder)
end
------To turn it back into a table
function CreateTable(Player)
local NewDataTable = {}
local Data = RS:FindFirstChild(Player.UserId)
local function DigDeep(newData, pData, ...)
local CurrentDir = newData
for i,v in pairs(pData:GetChildren()) do
if string.sub(v.Name,1,8) ~= "DontSave" then
end
end
end
DigDeep(NewDataTable, Data)
return NewDataTable
end
I expected to when the player leaves run createtable function and turn all the instances in replicated storage back into a dictionary with keys.

Answer 1

Why not just store extra information in your data table to help make it easy to convert back and forth. As an example, why not have your data look like this :
local ExampleData = {
-- hold onto your special "DON'T SAVE" values as simple keys in the table.
DONTSAVE_Values = {
Stamina = 0,
},
-- but every element under ReplicatedStorage will be used to represent an actual Instance.
ReplicatedStorage = {
-- store an array of Child elements rather than another map.
-- This is because Roblox allows you to have multiple children with the same name.
Name = "ReplicatedStorage",
Class = "ReplicatedStorage",
Properties = {},
Children = {
{
Name = "Level",
Class = "NumberValue",
Properties = {
Value = 0,
},
Children = {},
},
{
Name = "Ship",
Class = "Model",
Properties = {},
Children = {
{
-- add all of the other instances following the same pattern :
-- Name, Class, Properties, Children
},
},
},
}, -- end list of Children
}, -- end ReplicatedStorage element
};
You can create this table with a simple recursive function :
-- when given a Roblox instance, generate the dataTable for that element
local function getElementData(targetInstance)
local element = {
Name = targetInstance.Name,
Class = targetInstance.ClassName,
Properties = {},
Children = {},
}
-- add special case logic to pull out specific properties for certain classes
local c = targetInstance.ClassName
if c == "StringValue" then
element.Properties = { Value = targetInstance.Value }
-- elseif c == "ADD MORE CASES HERE" then
else
warn(string.format("Not sure how to parse information for %s", c))
end
-- iterate over the children and populate their data
for i, childInstance in ipairs(targetInstance:GetChildren()) do
table.insert( element.Children, getElementData(childInstance))
end
-- give the data back to the caller
return element
end
-- populate the table
local Data = {
ReplicatedStorage = getElementData(game.ReplicatedStorage)
}
Now Data.ReplicatedStorage.Children should have a data representation of the entire folder. You could even save this entire table as a string by passing it to HttpService:JSONEncode() if you wanted to.
When you're ready to convert these back into instances, use the data you've stored to give you enough information on how to recreate the elements :
local function recreateElement(tableData, parent)
-- special case ReplicatedStorage
if tableData.Class == "ReplicatedStorage" then
-- skip right to the children
for i, child in ipairs(tableData.Children) do
recreateElement(child, parent)
end
-- quick escape from this node
return
end
-- otherwise, just create elements from their data
local element = Instance.new(tableData.Class)
element.Name = tableData.Name
-- set all the saved properties
for k, v in pairs(tableData.Properties) do
element[k] = v
end
-- recreate all of the children of this element
for i, child in ipairs(tableData.Children) do
recreateElement(child, element)
end
-- put the element into the workspace
element.Parent = parent
end
-- populate the ReplicatedStorage from the stored data
recreateElement( Data.ReplicatedStorage, game.ReplicatedStorage)
You should be careful about how and when you choose to save this data. If you are playing a multiplayer game, you should be careful that this kind of logic only updates ReplicatedStorage for the first player to join the server. Otherwise, you run the risk of a player joining and overwriting everything that everyone else has been doing.
Since there isn't a way to iterate over properties of Roblox Instances, you'll have to manually update the getElementData function to properly store the information you care about for each type of object. Hopefully this helps!

Answer 2

If anyone else has this problem the solution I used was just to convert the instances strait into JSON format(I used the names as keys). so that way I can save it, and then when the player rejoins I just used JSONDecode to turn it into the dictionary I needed.
function DirToJSON(Player)
local NewData = RS:FindFirstChild(Player.UserId)
local JSONstring="{"
local function Recurse(Data)
for i, v in pairs(Data:GetChildren()) do
if v:IsA("Folder") then
if #v:GetChildren() < 1 then
if i == #Data:GetChildren()then
JSONstring=JSONstring..'"'..v.Name..'":[]'
else
JSONstring=JSONstring..'"'..v.Name..'":[],'
end
else
JSONstring=JSONstring..'"'..v.Name..'":{'
Recurse(v)
if i == #Data:GetChildren()then
JSONstring=JSONstring..'}'
else
JSONstring=JSONstring..'},'
end
end
else
if i == #Data:GetChildren()then
JSONstring=JSONstring..'"'..v.Name..'":"'..v.Value..'"'
else
JSONstring=JSONstring..'"'..v.Name..'":"'..v.Value..'",'
end
end
end
end
Recurse(NewData)
JSONstring = JSONstring.."}"
return(JSONstring)
end