Debounce

A Debounce system is a set of code that keeps a function from running too many times. It comes from the idea of mechanical switch bounce, where a switch bounces when pushed, creating multiple signals. In the context of Roblox, this problem occurs mainly with the Touched event, when a part touches another multiple times in a short space of time.

Theory

Let's say you have a button on the floor. When you jump on the button, it prints a message to the output. Your code would look like this:

game.Workspace.Button.Touched:connect(function(hit)
    print("Button pressed") --Print the message
    wait(1)                 --Wait for 1 second
    print("Hi :D")          --Print another message
end)

This will put this message in the output:

Button pressed
Hi :D

The problem is that the physics engine, because of the way bricks touch each other, will not register just one collision, it may cause several Touched events to fire. So your output will look more like this:

Button pressed
Button pressed
Button pressed
Button pressed
Button pressed
Hi :D
Hi :D
Hi :D
Hi :D
Hi :D

Rather than executing sequentially, all the event handlers execute at the same time.

Now if you're using a button for a Regeneration Script then it will make 5 of whatever you are regenerating. This is an issue because all 5 will be in the same spot causing all kinds of problems. So you can see the problem when you have a script without a debounce system.

Debouncing a system prevents this kind of problem. When an action happens, such as someone pressing your floor button, the script locks any new actions from that event until a time passes or the action is complete. It can be used for much more than just buttons, think of different ways you can use it for your scripts.

Use Case

It's fairly simple to convert an existing script to using debounce. Lets use the same script we had above, and add a couple of lines. In this case we will put in a time limit to wait for until the function can be run again.

Example

local buttonPressed = false
--Store whether the button is pressed in a local variable

game.Workspace.Button.Touched:connect(function(hit)
    if not buttonPressed then
    -- Is it not pressed?

        buttonPressed = true
        -- Mark it as pressed, so that other handlers don't execute

        print("Button pressed")
        wait(1)
        print("Hi :D")
        -- Do Stuff

        buttonPressed = false
        -- Mark it as not pressed, so other handlers can execute again
    end
end)

This will cause your output to look like this:

Button pressed
Hi :D

That's more like it! You can use this same concept, by adding the same 4 lines to different scripts, in most any script involving functions. It doesn't even have to just be touched objects, it can be used to keep people from pressing a button more than once, firing a weapon more often than you want, or preventing a new event from happening before the old one is done. Take a look at the next example.

Real World

Here's the Local Gui script of the Rocket Launcher tool:

enabled = true
function onButton1Down(mouse)
    if not enabled then
        return
    end

    enabled = false
    mouse.Icon = "rbxasset://textures\\GunWaitCursor.png"

    wait(12)
    mouse.Icon = "rbxasset://textures\\GunCursor.png"
    enabled = true

end

When you fire a rocket, the script shows the reload icon. Then the function waits for 12 seconds. During this time, enabled is false, so if the player tries to fire another rocket, the script won't run because the function will just return right away. After the 12 seconds are up, the reload cursor goes away and enabled becomes true again, allowing the user to fire another rocket.

Advanced notation

After a while, it might get tedious defining a separate debounce variable for each event handler. Instead, you can write a debounce function, that returns a debounced copy of it's first argument.

function debounce(func)
    local isRunning = false
    return function(...)
        if not isRunning then
            isRunning = true
            func(...)
            isRunning = false
        end
    end
end

Applying this to the original code:

game.Workspace.Button.Touched:connect(debounce(function(hit)
    print("Button pressed") --Print the message
    wait(1)                 --Wait for 1 second
    print("Hi :D")          --Print another message
end))