outputChatBox

[Drakath]

What is more efficient?

This:

for _,v in ipairs(getElementsByType("player")) do 
outputChatBox("Hello",v) 
end 

or this:

outputChatBox("Hello",root) 

[Grafu]

What is more efficient?

This:

for _,v in ipairs(getElementsByType("player")) do 
outputChatBox("Hello",v) 
end 

or this:

outputChatBox("Hello",root) 

This one, I guess:

for _,v in ipairs(getElementsByType("player")) do 
outputChatBox("Hello",v) 
end 

Another one is 30% slower than this one.

[Mr_Moose]

The element tree from wiki explains why

The chat message are only shown to players but with root as element it has to go through all elements, even those who's not goanna view the chat.

[botder]

Even faster:

local players = getElementsByType("player") 
for i=1, #players do 
    outputChatBox("Hello", players[i]) 
end 

[Saml1er]

Btw use pairs for loop since ipairs is 80% slower than pairs.

[Drakath]

So when should I use pairs and when ipairs? Or should I always use pairs instead?

Is it more efficient to use Necktrox's code or:

for _,v in pairs(getElementsByType("player")) do 
outputChatBox("Hello",v) 
end 

?

[SkatCh]

ipairs loop only number indexes "start from 1 index " and only in order but pairs loop all.

[Drakath]

I know what each does but what I asked was: when should I use ipairs and when pairs? And what about the code's efficiency?

[botder]

See here: Lua Performance Test

Results:

pairs: 3.078 (217%)

ipairs: 3.344 (236%)

for i=1,x do: 1.422 (100%)

for i=1,#atable do 1.422 (100%)

for i=1,atable_length do: 1.562 (110%)

[SkatCh]

as i told you ipairs is for indexed tables, it means every item <<<<>>>> in the table has it's own number: 1 is the index of the first value 2 is the index ot the second's and so on:

local table1 = { 1, 2, 3, 4 } -- First type 
local table2 = { [1] = 1,  [2] = 2, [3] = 3,[4] = 4} -- Second type 
  
  
for i, v in ipairs( table1 ) do --both pairs and ipairs will work in those tables: 
for i, v in pairs( table1 ) do 

but if you have a table like this

local table = { ["Yes"] = 1, [1] = "Table", ["example"] = 2014, [2] = "me", } 
-- ipairs won't work in this case. 

So try to use pairs all the time.

[Drakath]

Alright, thanks everyone.

So as I understood,

local players = getElementsByType("player") 
for i=1, #players do 
    outputChatBox("Hello", players[i]) 
end 

is the most efficient way possible.

[SkatCh]

you must read the conclusion :

Conclusion:

Don't use pairs() or ipairs() in critical code! Try to save the table-size somewhere and use for i=1,x do!

[Drakath]

I'm not using pairs() or ipairs()...

[SkatCh]

I'm not using pairs() or ipairs()...

it's just an advice so yes the last code is the most efficient way possible.