Problem with either nested functions or quote marks?

[jpegnight]

Hi there, I’ve been lurking in the forums to find answers to my problems, but this one has me completely stumped.

I’m making an Undertale-inspired !mercy command, I’m trying to get Nightbot to respond to a command with three potential outcomes:

1. if $(user)==$(touser), a brief message (you can’t spare yourself), else…
2. generate a number between 1 and 10. if(x<10) then poll pastebin for a random “idle” response, else (if x=10 then),
3. a rare “YOU WON! You got 0 XP and (random number) gold.” message (1/10 chance to appear)

So basically, if the user doesn’t add an argument after the command, they’ll get response 1. But if they do, then theoretically, 9/10 times they’ll get response 2, or 1/10 times response 3.

I am able to get responses 1 and 2 work if I omit the 3rd option, like this:
* $(eval if("$(user)"=="$(touser)"){"$(user) tried to spare themself. But nothing happened."}else{"$(touser)"+"$(eval a="$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)".split("#");a[Math.floor(Math.random()*a.length)])"})

I’m also able to make it choose between responses 2 and 3 in isolation:
* $(eval var b=(Math.floor(Math.random()*11));if(b<10){"$(touser)"+"$(eval a="$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)".split("#");a[Math.floor(Math.random()*a.length)])"}else{"YOU WON! $(user) earned 0 XP and "+(Math.ceil(Math.random()*100))+" gold."})

However, when I put it all together and try !mercy Nightbot, I get either Unexpected token ')' or missing ) after argument list, OR it just displays raw code like:
* Nightbot$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)

I’ve tried using single vs. double quotes, and using if/else in different ways, but I just can’t get it to do what I want. Here’s what I’m currently working with:
* $(eval if('$(user)'=='$(touser)'){'$(user) tried to spare themself. But nothing happened.'}else{"$(eval var x=Math.ceil(Math.random()*10);if(x<10){$(touser)$(eval a='$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)'.split('#');a[Math.floor(Math.random()*a.length)])}else{'YOU WON! $(user) earned 0 XP and '+(Math.ceil(Math.random()*100))+' gold.'})"})

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I feel like I’m very close to getting it, but not quite there. Thank you!

[Emily]

Hey @jpegnight!

You identified the issue properly: you reached the nesting limit! Basically, you use way too many $(eval), you only need one.

Here’s how I’d write your code:

const idleResponses = `$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)`.split(`#`);
// $(urlfetch) isn't a native JS function, this is just for the example
const randomOutcome = Math.ceil(Math.random() * 10);
const goldAmount = Math.ceil(Math.random() * 100);
// the line above will generate a random number between 1 and 100 included
// if you'd rather generate a number between 0 and 100 included, use:
// Math.floor(Math.random() * 101)

if ('$(user)' === '$(touser)') {
  return '$(user) tried to spare themself. But nothing happened.';
}

if(randomOutcome === 10) {
  return `YOU WON! $(user) earned 0 XP and ${goldAmount} gold.`;
}

return '$(touser) ' + idleResponses[Math.floor(Math.random() * idleResponses.length)];

First I assign all the variables I’ll need, then I do the tests to get the right output.

So the Nightbot version is this:

$(eval i=`$(urlfetch json https://pastebin.com/raw/UmRNDXpa)`.split(`#`);r=Math.ceil(Math.random()*10);g=Math.ceil(Math.random()*100);if(`$(user)`==`$(touser)`){`$(user) tried to spare themself. But nothing happened.`}else{if(r==10){`YOU WON! $(user) earned 0 XP and ${g} gold.`}else{`$(touser)${i[Math.floor(Math.random()*i.length)]}`}})

You may notice I also switched from single quotation marks to backticks, that’s because un-escaped single quotation marks in your Pastebin break the code, and backticks are a good way to go around that, they allow me to foolproof the code a bit, and I wanted to remain consitstent.

[jpegnight]

Brilliant, it works! Thank you so, so much. I don’t know javascript, so I don’t know what’s native or not, and a lot of this has been a brute-force approach. I’m learning a lot though, and I’m sure what I’ve learned from your response will be very helpful for making future commands. Your code is more dynamic, cleaner, and shorter. Cheers!