PFL, meaning Player From List. PFL is a simple and easy module script that allows for the easy grabbing of a player from a newlined list of player names.

local var = loadstring(game:HttpGet("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EarthToAccess/PFL/main/playerfromlist.lua"))()

Earth needed an easy way to get a plaintext list of players and return whether someone in that list is in the server. Thus, PFL was born. No more do you need to memorize various for loops and constantly type the same thing out. Just use this module script, and you're well on your way!

^{This section is not comprehensive and may be updated as time goes on, with more enhanced features and functionality.}

PFL was designed to be as simple and easy as possible. As such, all you need are two things; to know how you're getting your list, and to know what you what as an output.

Once you know both of those things, add the above loadstring variable into your script and use var:findp() to get to work.

Your first argument will be the list of players, which will be separated by newlines^{[as of 1.1]}; for example:

0xEARTH
TestDummy123
LuaIsGOAT

It can also be a similarly formatted list of User IDs, in the event you wish to use them instead.

Read and/or get this file however you have the ability to. For executors, a simple Pastebin using a second loadstring can suffice, for example:

local players = loadstring(game:HttpGet(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EarthToAccess/PFL/main/examplelist.lua))()

var:findp(players,3)

It's best to use your executor's readfile equivalent, however, as it's more reliable than using a loadstring in any case:

var:findp(readfile("players.txt"),3)

Your second argument is the output you want; what do you want PFL to return?

1. Strings
   Now, why you'd want to get a list of strings only to get returned a list of strings is beyond us, but we've decided to make it possible anyway. It could potentially be used to output in one easy string all the found players, maybe to show friends in a server.
2. Table
   Returns a table of all the found players. Very useful for iterating through found players, if you expect to have multiple at once.
3. Single Player
   Arguably the most useful of the three, this returns a string with the first player it found's name. Useful if you expect only to find one, or if you don't care what it finds so long as it finds something.

Keep in mind that anything else other than one, two, or three will default to three. This does technically mean that var:findp(list,3) and var:findp(list) are the same.

What PFL returns is entirely dependant on the argument you supplied (see above). PFL will not output anything to the console; to check if you've successfully found something by outputting it, wrap it in a print statement:

print(var:findp(list))

On its own, PFL can be used in variables itself or as arguments to other functions without hassle or workaround.

PFL will return with a table containing valid matches, each match itself being a table containing a Name and UserId value, with exception to Strings, which will instead return an unpacked table containing all the names and User IDs that it found.

For example, if you returned Single Player and it found TestDummy123 with the ID 123456789 in your server, it would return its own table that you could then grab either the User ID or name from:

local match = var:findp(readfile("userid.txt"))

if match.UserId == 123456789 or match.Name == "TestDummy123" then
    print("Found!")
end

-- >> Found!

This can be useful if you're testing for User IDs or names, but don't exactly know which response you might need (e.g. for teleports, simple listings, etc.).

If PFL can't find the person you're looking for, all entries will return nil. For returning Strings, it will just return nil itself; for Table or Single Player, each entry will return .Name and .UserId as nil. For example, if you tried looking for TestDummy123 and it didn't find anything:

^{- Returning Single Player or Table}

if match.UserId == nil then
    print("No match!")
end

-- >> No match!

^{- Returning Strings}

if match == nil then
    print("No match!")
end

-- >> No match!

Due to the nature of how scripting itself works, neither Earth nor the PFL team will accept any responsibility should you find yourself banned from any Roblox game or Roblox itself. User discretion is advised.

^{Entries in this changelog are denoted by using asterisks (*) for changes, pluses (+) for additions, and dashes (-) for removals.}

• [*] Not inputting any list to read (i.e. calling var:findp() as-is) will now return nil vs "N/A".
• [*] Returning a table or single player while not having any valid players in your server and list will now return nil for .UserId and .Name respectively, rather than "N/A".
  • This was done after realizing the oversight that trying to index .Name or .UserId when a player wasn't there would error out. Now, it should instead return a proper nil which is still usable.
• [*] Table and Single Player return types will now return a table with .Name and .UserId, regardless of the input list.
  • For Table, you will need to iterate through each entry and find .Name or .UserId from there;

    for i,v in pairs var:findp(readfile("list.txt"),2) do
        if v.Name == "test" or v.UserId == "123456" then
            --
        end
    end

  • If no players are found, both Table and Single Player return types will have a single table as expected, with both values being nil.
• [*] Strings return type will return nil if no players are found.
• [*] Minor code optimizations to make things run faster, removing some redundant or ambigious code.

• [+] Added the ability to find players off a list of User IDs versus only names.

• [*] Fixed an issue with outputting a list of strings in which it never got your input list to start.

• [+] Welcome to PFL!