Corona SDK: Displaying Word from Table - lua

Question

OK my first question was too vague so I'm going to start simple here. I am trying to get a random word from a table in another lua file (content.lua). I have gotten the code to run without errors but cannot get a word to display on the screen or via print in the command console. What am I missing?
game.lua
--lua for game
--Loading the local variables
--creates the storyboard variable and calls the storyboard api
local storyboard = require ("storyboard")
--calls the mydata.lua module
local myData = require( "mydata" )
--calls the sfx.lua where sounds are stored
local sfx = require( "sfx" )
--calls the operations.lua
local operations = require("operations")
local content = require("content")
local playOrder
local wordGraphic
local currQuestion = 1
local homeButton
--tells storyboard to create a new scene
local scene = storyboard.newScene()
function scene:createScene(event)
local gameScreen = self.view
--creates a transparent background image centered on the display
local gameBackground = display.newImage("images/graphics/jungle1.jpg")
gameBackground.x = display.contentWidth/2
gameBackground.y = display.contentHeight/2
gameScreen:insert(gameBackground)
homeButton = display.newImage("images/buttons/home.png")
homeButton.alpha = .8
homeButton.y = 70
gameScreen:insert(homeButton)
playOrder = operations.getRandomOrder(#content)
end
local function onHomeTouch(event)
if event.phase == "began" then
storyboard.gotoScene("start")
end
end
function scene:enterScene(event)
homeButton:addEventListener("touch", onHomeTouch)
audio.play(sfx.Bkgd)
--uses the operations.lua to get words in a random order from the content.lua
--shows a random word from the content.lua table
function showWord()
local word = content[playOrder[currQuestion]].word
print(word)
wordGraphic = self.view
wordGraphic:insert(word)
wordGraphic.x = display.contentWidth/2
wordGraphic.y = display.contentHeight/2
end
end
--next question function which clears the screen and loads a new random word
function scene:exitScene(event)
homeButton:removeEventListener("touch", onHomeTouch)
end
function scene:destroyScene(event)
end
--the actual event listeners that make the functions work
scene:addEventListener("createScene", scene)
scene:addEventListener("enterScene", scene)
scene:addEventListener("exitScene", scene)
scene:addEventListener("destroyScene", scene)
return scene
Here is the operations.lua that gets the random order function
--operations.lua
module(..., package.seeall)
--function to get a random piece of data
function getRandomOrder(amount)
local order ={}
local i
local temp
local temp1
for n = 1,amount do
order[n] = n
end
for i=0,9 do
for temp = 1,amount do
n = math.random(1, amount)
temp1 = order[temp]
order[temp] = order[n]
order[n] = temp1
end
end
return order
end
This is where the words I am attempting to display are stored. I did not include all of them.
--content.lua
return {
{
id = "after",
word = "after"
},
{
id = "again",
word = "again"
},
{
id = "an",
word = "an"
},
{
id = "any",
word = "any"
},
{
id = "ask",
word = "ask"
},
{
id = "as",
word = "as"
},
{
id = "by",
word = "by"
}
}

Answer 1

You're not calling showWord in any of the code that you've shown so far. This is probably why it isn't even printing to the console. The function is just contained within scene:enterScene and exits to the outer scope, defining itself as a global variable when enterScene is called.