Display text with expression fails with booleans

imjustmike

I'm trying to add some text in front of an attribute value using an expression along the lines of "text: "game.attribute

This works perfectly when the attribute is an integer or something similar, but when the attribute is a boolean this results in an invalid expression. Does gamesalad really not support adding text and a boolean in an expression or am I doing something wrong?

JamieOneil

You are not doing anything wrong, I don't know if it is a bug or what but there is an easy fix since booleans only have 2 values, true or false.

If game.attribute = true then
display text "text: true"
else
display text "text: false"

gyroscope

Hi @imjustmike Yes, it's either a bug, an oversight or intended... (i.e not able to concatenate with a boolean in a Display Text behaviour)... you decide which! ;-)

That's a really neat solution from @JamieOneil - a good workaround.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

I remember black cloak explaining why this is but there is a reason for it.

gyroscope

I remember black cloak explaining why this is but there is a reason for it.

I'm all the more intrigued to know the reason now!! :-)

RThurman

@imjustmike -- you can make a Boolean into an integer "0" or "1" with the following expression:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and(1)or(0))

you can also turn a Boolean into text:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and("true")or("false"))

BlackCloakGS

The reason that the .. operator does not work with bool has to with our reliance on Lua for execution of expressions. We use Lua to execute the expression and in Lua the .. operator does not work with booleans.

imjustmike

Thanks all, especially @jamieoneil and @RThurman for a workaround and @blackcloakGS for an explanation

tatiang

@imjustmike -- you can make a Boolean into an integer "0" or "1" with the following expression:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and(1)or(0))

you can also turn a Boolean into text:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and("true")or("false"))

This is awesome! Thanks, @RThurman.

gyroscope

@BlackCloakGS

The reason that the .. operator does not work with bool has to with our reliance on Lua for execution of expressions. We use Lua to execute the expression and in Lua the .. operator does not work with booleans.

Thanks for the explanation, BC, appreciated. :-)

RThurman

@imjustmike -- You are welcome. Hope it works for you.

@tatiang -- Boolean logic is its own universe. It sometimes seems (to me) to be counter intuitive, but it can be very useful.

eegames

@RThurman said:
@imjustmike -- you can make a Boolean into an integer "0" or "1" with the following expression:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and(1)or(0))

you can also turn a Boolean into text:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and("true")or("false"))

What is this, and how do I learn more? I can't find any reference to an and() or or() inside GameSalad, and I feel like would be really helpful in other uses.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@earl0000 said:

@RThurman said:
@imjustmike -- you can make a Boolean into an integer "0" or "1" with the following expression:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and(1)or(0))

you can also turn a Boolean into text:

"text: "..((game.attribute)and("true")or("false"))

What is this, and how do I learn more? I can't find any reference to an and() or or() inside GameSalad, and I feel like would be really helpful in other uses.

Go to learn.gamesalad.com and see @Armelline tutorial learning to love the expression editor.