loading a file iff it exists

[melinath]

Does anyone happen to know a technique for loading a file iff it exists? I've tried:

Code: Select all

pcall(wesnoth.require("blah.lua"))

but the "file does not exist" error still propagates and halts my code.

[Alarantalara]

pcall doesn't work that way, which is why you're having the problem. It needs a function as an argument to execute, not the result of the execution.

Staying with pcall, the correct way to use it is:

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pcall(function () wesnoth.require("blah.lua") end)

I've used an anonymous function to minimize the space taken, but the point is that you pass the name of a function but do not call it yourself. This means the function must have 0 arguments.

[melinath]

Hah... of course. Thanks. I swear I read the docs... :-p

Incidentally, though, pcall can take a function with args[1]. This is what I'm doing now (which works):

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pcall(wesnoth.require, "blah.lua")

[1] http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#pdf-pcall

[Alarantalara]

And now I've learned that pcall has variable argument lists. Excellent.