How could I add a skill point limiter in lua?

Question

Ok so I'm building a Text-based adventure in lua... If anyone thinks that is a bad idea well I am the master of bad ideas but the question is about the level up function... So here it is

  function lvl()
    if xp >= xpr then
      level = level + 1
      xpr = xpr * 1.5
      xp = 0
      io.write("Congrats! Somehow you didn't die and lose everything!", "\n")
      io.write("Your level is now:" .. level .. "\n")
      sp = sp + 6
      io.write("Do you want to allocate your " .. sp .. " skill points?", "\n")
      sac = io.read()
      if sac == "yes" then
          io.write("How much do you want to put into strength?", "\n")
          strsp = io.read()
          if sp == 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            str = str + strsp
            io.write("Strength: ", str, "\n")
          end
          io.write("How much do you want to put into dexterity?", "\n")
          dexsp = io.read()
          if sp == 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            dex = dex + dexsp
            io.write("Dexterity: ", dex, "\n")
          end
          io.write("How much do you want to put into constitution?", "\n")
          consp = io.read()
          if sp == 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            con = con + consp
            io.write("Constitution: ", str, "\n")
          end
          io.write("How much do you want to put into intelligence?", "\n")
          intsp = io.read()
          if sp <= 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            int = int + intsp
          end
          io.write("How much do you want to put into wisdom?", "\n")
          wissp = io.read()
          if sp <= 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            wis = wis + wissp
          end
          io.write("How much do you want to put into charisma", "\n")
          chasp = io.read()
          if sp <= 0 then
            io.write("You don't have any skill points!", "\n")
          else
            cha = cha + chasp
          end
          
    elseif xp < xpr then
      io.write("You didn't level up!", "\n")
    end
  end

and the problem lies within the skill allocation system. I cannot figure out how to limit the amount of skill points you spend... Thank you in advance!

PS: I'm very new to lua.

Answer 1

Convert the string from io.read() to a number...

io.write("How much do you want to put into strength?", "\n")
          strsp = tonumber(io.read())
          if sp < strsp then -- check input is not more than sp
            io.write("You don't have enough skill points!", "\n")
          else
            sp = sp - strsp -- substract from sp
            str = str + strsp -- add to str
            io.write("Strength: ", str, "\n")
          end

PS: Give user info about amount of sp and current str.
For example with format() method...

io.write(("%s %d %s%d%s: "):format("How much from", sp, "do you want to put into strength? (", str, ")"))