target's name in chat text?

[Vardelm]

Simple n00b question here: how do I get a unit's name into the text for a chat message? I'm using:

DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("blablablablabla <target>")

I'm sure this can't be hard. I've been doing some searching and haven't found anything to help yet.

Thanks!

[Gello]

If using AddMessage, you'll want to use UnitName("target").

I also suggest using UnitName("target") or "<no target>" if there's a possibility you can have no target (to avoid concatenation with nil errors)

DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("blablablablabla "..UnitName("target"))

or

DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("blablablablabla "..(UnitName("target") or "<no target>"))

[Vardelm]

Gah!!! Of course!

May I also ask, what exactly does the ".." do before UnitName? I've seen that used, and I think I'm actually doing that at one point in this function. I just copied it from somewhere, so I'm not familiar with it.

BTW, this is the last question I have, and my little project is complete.

[Gello]

.. is a string concatenation operator

local txt = "abc" .. "def" -- txt is now "abcdef"

If your target is "Bob" then "blahblahblah "..UnitName("target") will append the strings to make "blahblahblah Bob"

Veeeering off topic (servers down), a really neat trick with lua is the "or" bit. Lua is fine using or/and on any variable type. In an "or", if the first expression is false, then it returns the second value.

local txt = UnitName("target") or "<no target>"
with Bob targeted: UnitName("target") is "BoB", so it takes that return.
with no target: UnitName("target") is nil, so it uses the second expression, "<no target>"

An "and" returns the second expression if the first expression is true.

So you can do things like:

local channel = (GetNumRaidMembers()>0 and "RAID") or (GetNumPartyMembers()>0 and "PARTY") or "SAY"

which is the equivalent of

channel = "SAY"
if GetNumRaidMembers()>0 then
  channel = "RAID"
elseif GetNumPartyMembers()>0 then
  channel = "PARTY"
end

If you're in a raid, GetNumRaidMembers()>0 is true so the first expression is "RAID".
If you're not in a raid, but in a party, the first expression is false, but the second is true, so it's "PARTY".
If you're neither in a raid or party, it will use the last expression "SAY".

It's great for initializing defaults too. I need to get in the habit of always assuming nil for default values, so this isn't the best way, but a few of my mods that have options added over time get default values assigned this way:

ItemRack_Settings.RightClick = ItemRack_Settings.RightClick or "OFF" -- 1.1
ItemRack_Settings.TinyTooltip = ItemRack_Settings.TinyTooltip or "OFF" -- 1.2
ItemRack_Settings.ShowTooltips = ItemRack_Settings.ShowTooltips or "ON" -- 1.2
ItemRack_Settings.RotateMenu = ItemRack_Settings.RotateMenu or "OFF" -- 1.3
ItemRack_Users[user].Spaces = ItemRack_Users[user].Spaces or {} -- 1.3
ItemRack_Users[user].Sets = ItemRack_Users[user].Sets or {} -- 1.4

So it uses the existing value if one exists, or sets a default if one doesn't exist. (the -- 1.x are the version numbers)

You'll need to be pretty careful on the order of operations too.

x = y and z or 1

is very different from

x = (y and z) or 1

[Vardelm]

Thanks a BUNCH!!! That's very, very helpful!