Best practice when creating/accessing global function

[Tosaido]

Hello,

What would be the best way to create and access a global function.

is:

file1:

function MyFunction()
    --code
    return a, b
end

file2:

local a, b = MyFunction()

fine to use, or is there a better way? (The function is called only once every session and no i don't have a global function named MyFunction :])

[syncrow]

Your code is fine, if your global functions are named well and unique (not interfering with other addons)

You could also use functions within a metatable:

file 1:

local name, addon = ...
 
-- create function
function addon:MyFunction()
    -- content
    return a, b
end

file 2:

local name, addon = ...
local a, b = addon:MyFunction()

[Tosaido]

Hi, thanks for the quick response, although i forgot to mention that file 1 and 2 are part of different addons.

[syncrow]

-- file 1
local name, addon = ...
MySmartAddonVariable = addon

-- file 2
local addon = MySmartAddonVariable
local a, b = addon:MyFunction()

Assuming using your method: use a prefix for all your global functions:

function SyncUI_MyFunction()
    --content
end
 
function SyncUI_MyOtherFunction()
    --content
end

[Tosaido]

My functions are named quite specific so i doubt anyone is going to accidentally access them.

I'v seen _G pop-up quite often, why use that if you can just calling the function directly?

[Fizzlemizz]

_G is just the name of the global table or the space where globals are stored.

you can:
/run print(_G.PlayerFrame)
or:
/run print(_G["PlayerFrame"])
or:
/run print(PlayerFrame)

For accessing globals using a string reference

local var = _G["SomeEntry"] 
-- or 
_G["SomeEntry"] = SomeValue

is most comonly used. It "replaced" the old GetGlobal/SetGlobal functions (although these are still usable).

Edited for clarity per Tosaido's observations.

[Tosaido]

Ah ok...

so it's used for something like this...(Bad example for using globals but ehh)

local alphabet = {a, b, ...all the way to, z}
 
for _, Letter in pairs(alphabet) do
    _G["MyTable" .. Letter] = {}
end

where as

"MyTable" .. Letter = {} 
or
["MyTable" .. Letter] = {}
or
local Name = "MyTable" .. Letter
Name = {}

wouldn't work.

Do i have that correct?

[Fizzlemizz]

local Name = "MyTable" .. Letter
Name = {}

If Letter had been predefined then
local Name = "MyTable" .. Letter

would create a local variable called Name with the string value "MyTable" and whatever Letter contained otherwise you would get a error for trying to concatinate a nil variable.

Name = {}
Would then replace the string with an empty table. Otherwise yes, exactly.

[Tosaido]

Yea i was implying that what i wrote in the second Lua Code snippet would replace the code within the for loop in the first Lua Code snippet.

[Fizzlemizz]

Gello wrote a reply on the Blizzard forums that might also be of use (bottom part of the post). It's post #6, you might have to press enter on the Navbar again to get to the actual post.

[Torhal]

Originally Posted by syncrow Then you could globalize your metatable to get access:

You keep using that word. A metatable is definitely not what you keep showing in your examples, though.

[zork]

Just make one global variable of type table that is named after your addon. Put all functions you want globally accessible in that table by reference.