Lua Errors

Reading Lua Error Messages

Most errors are shown in Output Window in Roblox Studio or Tools. Understanding them can make debugging efforts much more focused.

Compile Errors

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:3: 'end' expected (to close 'while' at line 1) near '<eof>'

Let's break the message down in parts:

• "Wed Dec 09 12:34:56 2009" - time of the message
• "Workspace.Script" - Full name of the script
• "3" - the line with the error
• "'end' expected (to close 'while' at line 1) near '<eof>'" - the error message

Important: Output window doesn't always show these errors (see Debugging)

Runtime Errors

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:7: attempt to perform arithmetic on global 'a' (a function value)
Wed Dec 09 12:34:56 2009 - Workspace.Script, line 7 - global b Workspace.Script, line 2 - global a Workspace.Script, line 14 stack end

The first part is the same as a compile time error. The second part is called a stack trace.

• "Workspace.Script, line 7" - the source of the error (inside function b)
• "- global b Workspace.Script, line 2" - call to function b (from function a)
• "- global a Workspace.Script, line 14" - call to function a (from main script)
• "stack end" - end of the stack trace

Advanced note: Stack trace doesn't include calls to functions that use a tail call.

Basic Lua Errors

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: attempt to index global 'a' (a function value)
Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'a' (a string value)
Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: attempt to concatenate upvalue 'a' (a nil value)
Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: attempt to call field 'a' (a number value)

Many Lua "operators" give similar error messages:

• "Workspace.Script:2:" - The source of the error
• "attempt to ___" - The error is caused by the given operation on the wrong type of variable

Operation Name	Operator	Allowed Types
index	. or [k]	table, string
perform arithmetic	various	number, string*
concatenate	..	string, number
call	(...)	function

• • Note: String can only be used in arithmetic if it can be converted to a number.
  • Advanced Note: Metatables can be used to allow tables or userdata perform any of these operations.
• "___ 'a'" - The given type of a variable named 'a' (a will be the actual name in the code)
  • NOTE: that a field name itself can be a variable in which case the message says '?'
• "(a ___ value)" - Gives the actual type of the variable

Confusing Error Messages

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:3: 'end' expected (to close 'while' at line 1) near '<eof>'

The while on line 1 is missing an end. You need an end for each of the following:

• function
• do
• if (but not elseif)

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:4: '<eof>' expected near 'end'

The end on line 4 is extra.

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: 'then' expected near '='

This is caused by using '=' (assignment) in an if instead of '==' (comparsion)

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: '=' expected near 'if'
Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: unexpected symbol near 'if'
Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:2: function arguments expected near 'if'

Errors on the beginning of a line are often because an incomplete previous line. In this case, the problems are:

Game.GetService -- missing parentheses ()
Game.GetService( -- missing close parenthesis )
Game:GetService -- missing parentheses () or "function arguments"

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:3: '=' expected near '=='

This is caused by using '==' (comparison) instead of '=' assignment.

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: malformed number near '1..'

This is caused by attempting to concatenate a number without putting a space since dots can be part of a number:

print( 1.." tests passed" )

instead of

print( 1 .." tests passed" )

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: bad argument #3 to '?' (Object expected, got function)

This error was caused by assigning the wrong type of value to a property:

Workspace.Part.Parent = print

• Advanced Note: The message comes from the __newindex(obj,ndx,val) function in the Instance metatable.

Similarly, you can get

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: bad argument #2 to '?' (string expected, got function)

By indexing an object with the wrong type:

print( Workspace.Part[print] )

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: bad argument #2 to '?' (Vector3 expected, got number)

This error was caused by incorrect math on an Object

print( Vector3.new() + 1 )

• Advanced Note: The message comes from the __add(obj,val) function in the Instance metatable.

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Part1 is not a valid member of Workspace

Aside from the obvious, this message also occurs if you attempt to set a child directly:

print( Workspace.Part1 ) -- ok
Workspace.Part1 = Instance.new("Part") -- error

You need to set the Name and Parent properties instead:

local part = Instance.new("Part")
part.Name = "Part1"
part.Parent = Workspace

• Advanced Note: Why does this not have a source line?

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Workspace.Script:1: bad argument #1 to 'Lerp' (Vector3 expected, got userdata)

Internally, Roblox objects use the userdata type of Lua. This means we've passed the wrong kind of object to the Lerp method.

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Unknown exception

This error happens when you attempt to call a locked method, use a locked event, or change a locked property. This means that you're trying to use something that Roblox does not want you to use for security reasons.

Unusual Error Messages

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - maximum event re-entrancy depth exceeded

This is caused by too many events triggering each other. A simple example is this script:

local bv = Instance.new("BoolValue")
bv.Parent = script
bv.Value = false

bv.Changed:connect( function() bv.Value = not bv.Value end )

bv.Value = true

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - Unable to cast value to std::string

This is a C++ error from the underlying Roblox function. They may have skipped the Lua type check for performance.

Most common reason for this is passing nil or other Lua type to method expecting a string:

Game:FindFirstChild(Workspace)

instead of

Game:FindFirstChild("Workspace")

---

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - chunk has too many syntax levels

This is caused by doing too many operations at once.

It can result from:

• Too many operations (e.g. Doing 500 concatenations in a single expression)
• Too many nested control statements (Loops, if statements, etc)

Local Variable Errors

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - main function has more than 200 local variables

This is due to declaring more than 200 local variables. This artificial limit is put in place to prevent problems when actually running your script.

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - function at line <number> has more than 60 upvalues

Like the above error, this one is artificial. Again, it has to do with maintaining your Lua script's state while executing it.

If you encounter either this error or the one above, you should look into grouping some of your variables into at least one localized table.

Ambiguous Syntax Errors

Sunday Nov 24 14:34:56 2024 - ambiguous syntax (function call x new statement) near '<some of your code>'

When this might happen:

local value = some_function()
(another_function or some_function)(2, true, "taco")

What's wrong?

Due to the way Lua handles Whitespace, it thinks that the second line is an extension of the first. Instead of seeing two separate statements, Lua sees them as one, but it's not sure whether this is right. That's because it's ambigious, so it throws an error. This can be fixed by adding a semicolon (;) after the first line.

Tricky Mistakes

Floating point calculations can be surprising; it's safer to use inequalities. Or use an integer for controlling the loop.

n = 0
while true do
  n = n + 0.1
  if( n == 0.9 ) then break end -- never happens
end

Just like the number 1/3 would be 0.3333... (repeating) in decimal. The number 1/10 is 0.00011 (repeating) in binary. Exact binary values are powers of 2, like 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 etc. And multiples of those.

Since a computer must stop at a certain number of digits, the (repeating) idea is lost. If you add up 3 * 1/3, you get 0.999 instead of 1 or 10 * 1/10 in the computer is very close to 1 but not exactly. (In fact, it's so close to 1 that if you print it, it will say "1", but if you compare it with == or subtract it from one you'll see a slight difference).

part.Transparency = 0.1
if( part.Transparency == 0.1 ) then -- false
--
end

In this case, Transparency property of Roblox stores less digits than Lua uses.

Example

Lua says 1/3 is 0.333333, but Transparency only holds 3 digits so it is set to 0.333.

When Lua compares 0.333 to 0.333333 they are not equal.