Attempt to Index GlobalCredits 'event' (a nil value) - lua

Question

I have just started to learn LUA in school, but i cannot find many helpful tutorials o the internet to aid in my learning. I have made a simple game (which doesn't work yet, i realize that) and a main menu. However, when i try to start the app, it gives me this error:
/Users/jordanmcbride/Desktop/Lua Projects/Tapinator/main.lua:47: attempt to index global 'showCredits' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
/Users/jordanmcbride/Desktop/Lua Projects/Tapinator/main.lua:47: in main chunk
[Finished in 9.4s]
I have looked the error, and I cannot seem to understand how to fix it. The other questions have said something about returning the function returning a nil value, and that I should add a return statement to the end, but that doesn't work either.
Here is the code # line 47.
function showCredits.touch(e)
playButton.isVisible = false
creditsButton.isVisible = false
creditsView = display.newImage('credits.png', 0, display.contentHeight)
lastY = name.y
transition.to(name, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight * 0.5 - title.height - 25})
transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight * 0.5 + creditsView.height, onComplete = function() creditsView:addEventListener('tap', hideCredits) end})
end
Here is my full code, in case the problem lies elsewhere:
display.setStatusBar(display.HiddenStatusBar)
radius = 40
smallTime = 200
bigTime = 800
score = 0
scoreInc = 2000
--HomePage
local name
local playButton
local creditsButton
local homePage
--Credits
local creditsPage
--Sounds
local circleSpawn = audio.loadSound( "circle_spawn.wav" )
local circleTap = audio.loadSound( "circle_tap.wav" )
function Main()
name = display.newImage('title.png', display.contentWidth / 2, 53)
name:scale( .5, .5 )
playButton = display.newImage('playButton.png', display.contentWidth / 2, 245)
playButton:scale( .5, .5 )
creditsButton = display.newImage('creditsButton.png', display.contentWidth / 2, 305)
creditsButton:scale( .5, .5 )
homePage = display.newGroup(name, playButton, creditsButton)
startButtonListeners('add')
end
function showCredits.touch(e)
playButton.isVisible = false
creditsButton.isVisible = false
creditsView = display.newImage('credits.png', 0, display.contentHeight)
lastY = name.y
transition.to(name, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight * 0.5 - title.height - 25})
transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight * 0.5 + creditsView.height, onComplete = function() creditsView:addEventListener('tap', hideCredits) end})
end
function hideCredits.touch(e)
transition.to(creditsView, {time = 300, y = display.contentHeight, onComplete = function() creditsButton.isVisible = true playButton.isVisible = true creditsView:removeEventListener('tap', hideCredits) display.remove(creditsView) creditsView = nil end})
transition.to(name, {time = 300, y = lastY});
end
function startButtonListeners(action)
if(action == 'add') then
playButton:addEventListener('touch', playGame)
creditsButton:addEventListener('touch', showCredits)
else
playButton:removeEventListener('touch', playGame)
creditsButton:removeEventListener('touch', showCredits)
end
end
Main()
printScore = display.newText("Score: " .. tostring(score), display.contentWidth-80, 40, native.systemFontBold, 20)
-- A function that creates random circles
function generateCircle ()
-- Creates a new circle between 0 (the left most bounds) and the width of the display (being the content width), and also
-- 0 (the upper most bounds) and the height of the display (being the content height). The radius of the circle is 'radius'
x = math.random(radius, display.contentWidth-radius)
y = math.random(80, display.contentHeight)
score = score + scoreInc
myCircle = display.newCircle( x, y, radius )
myCircle:setFillColor( math.random(), math.random(), math.random() )
delayTime = math.random(smallTime, bigTime)
score = score + scoreInc
printScore.text = "Score:"..tostring(scores)
local spawnChannel = audio.play( circleSpawn )
timer.performWithDelay( delayTime, generateCircle )
end
generateCircle()
function myCircle:touch( event )
local tapChannel = audio.play( circleTap )
myCircle:removeSelf()
end
myCircle:addEventListener( "touch", myCircle )

Answer 1

The answer by greatwolf will work. But just a tip from my experience. One way I like to create functions is to try to define the name of the function first near the top of the lua file. Then I will define the function later on in the file. Something like this:
--function preallocation
local onPlayTap
local onSoundOnTap
local onSoundOffTap
local onCreditsTap
local onHelpTap
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Custom Function Definitions
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Called when Sound On Button is tapped, turn off sound
onSoundOnTap = function(event)
end
--Called when Sound Off Button is tapped, turn on sound
onSoundOffTap = function(event)
end
--Called when Credits button is tapped, shows credits
onCreditsTap = function(event)
end
--Called when Help button is tapped, shows help
onHelpTap = function(event)
end
--Callback to Play button. Moves scene to Level Picker Scene
onPlayTap = function(event)
end
What this does is allow each function to be called by any other function in the file. If you do it the way you are doing it by adding the function name before the function like so:
local showCredits = {}
function showCredits.touch(e)
end
local hideCredits = {}
function hideCredits.touch(e)
end
your showCredit function will not be able to call the hideCredits function below it because the hideCredits variable has not been defined yet when the showCredit function was defined. Although this may not effect your current game, in future apps or games, you may need to call functions inside of other functions. To make this work properly, predefine all your function variables first, then define all your function afterwards. Hope this helps.