Combining strings? AKA: Concatenation

[FurryEskimo]

Here's what I know so far: https://www.lua.org/pil/3.4.html

Thing is, it doesn't seem to work at all the way I'm using it.  Is it even possible?

local a = Testing
STRINGS.CHARACTER_DESCRIPTIONS.furryeskimo = (a .. "Testing")  --Expected outcome: "Testing Testing"

Edit:  Figured it out.  Pretty basic actually, and I'm mostly leaving this here so others know.  This game me a clue: 

 

local a = "Testing"  --THIS needs to be in quotes, which seems obvious, but it can be easy to overlook.
STRINGS.CHARACTER_DESCRIPTIONS.furryeskimo = a .. "Testing"  --Expected outcome: "Testing Testing"

>>>I'm using this to make a custom character description, changing based on the mod's configuration settings.

[penguin0616]

@FurryEskimo It doesn't work because a isn't a string. It's nil.
 

-- Bad --------------------------------------

local a = Testing -- Testing here is a nil variable. This will not work for concatenation.
print(a .. "Testing") -- This will error because a is nil.

-- Good ------------------------------------

local a = "Testing" -- This is a string, which is required for concatentation.
print(a .. " Testing") -- This will print "Testing Testing"

-- So your revised code is...
local a = "Testing"
STRINGS.CHARACTER_DESCRIPTIONS.furryeskimo = a .. " Testing"

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by penguin0616
syntax highlighting problem?

[FurryEskimo]

Mhm.  Since my modded character has like, eight or so features that directly change their abilities, I figured the character select screen should tell you what their current abilities are.