Sugarcube: array works but I can't print out results - what is wrong with the code?

Question

Hello,

 

I am still quite inexperienced with Twine but I am trying to learn. If I miss out some information below please ask - thank you in advance for even reading! I am using Sugarcube 2.21.0

 

I have created the following code for one of my programs (I am trying to generate random characters):

 

<<set given: $male_names= ["Noah", "Liam", .... "Antoine"]>>

<<set given: $female_names= ["Emma", "Olivia", ... "Alianna"]>>

<<set given: $surname = ["SMITH", "JOHNSON", ... "NOEL", "VANG"]>> 

 

<<set given: $sex = ["male", "female"]>>

<<set $uniformed_commander to {sex: either($sex)}>>
<<if $uniformed_commander.sex eq "female">>
    <<set $uniformed_commander to {name: either($female_names), surname: either($surname), age: random(30,50)}>>
<<else>>
    <<set $uniformed_commander to {name: either($male_names), surname: either($surname), age: random(30,50)}>>
<</if>>

$uniformed_commander.sex
$uniformed_commander.name
$uniformed_commander.surname
$uniformed_commander.age

 

Now this code works - it generates correctly male or female etc. (i have tested it). However when I run it I get the following outcome every time:

 

$uniformed_commander.sex
Ezequiel
ROBERTSON
40

 

Everything works, it goes through randomly but it does NOT give me the first parameter. I tried assigning it to some other value, tried renaming it, tried dropping the $sex and downright putting there male/female. It does not work - what am I doing wrong? 

Answer 1

You're forgetting to set sex in your if statement:

<<if $uniformed_commander.sex eq "female">>
    <<set $uniformed_commander to {name: either($female_names), surname: either($surname), age: random(30,50), sex: "female"}>>
<<else>>
    <<set $uniformed_commander to {name: either($male_names), surname: either($surname), age: random(30,50), sex: "male"}>>
<</if>>

Since you are setting the value of $uniformed_commander again down there, the previous value gets overwritten.

Comments

Dear idling,

 

thank you for your answer. Your solution works :)

 

But... Wait, do you mean that everytime I set up some parameters I have to set them all again? Because I did setup the sex before the if statement (<<set $uniformed_commander to {sex: either($sex)}>>). 

If so is tere any other way how I do not reset it but only add additional parameters? Because if I have to always set them up again it is actually quite hard to use them.

---

To add properties to an existing object you would have to do something like this:

<<set $uniformed_commander.newProperty to "A new property">>

$uniformed_commander.newProperty

 

---

Dear Idling,

 

thank you again. This however only adds to confusion.

 

I tried searching for the arrays on the wiki but can't find enough information. Is there any good source I could look at that would explain this?

 

Thank you!

---

If you set a variable, then set the variable again, the first instance gets overwritten:

<<set $example to "this">>
<<set $example to "that">>

Our first set is going to be overwritten by the second and the variable is going to be "that". The same is true for objects:

<<set $character to {
name: "Tom",
}>>

<<set $character to {
age: 20,
}>>

Since $character as a whole was set for a second time, this will overwrite the first instance. Now $character.name is not defined anymore since that version of the objects was changed later on. If you wanted to just add a property to the object without deleting the stuff you previously defined, you'd have to specifically only set that property but not the entire object:

<<set $character to {
name: "Tom",
}>>

<<set $character.age to 20>>

 

---

Idling, thank you very much for you kind answer! I really appreciate it and now everything is clear! :)