loadfile

Loads a Luau file and returns it as a function.

Syntax

loadfile(path: string) -> function?, string?

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`path`	`string`	The file path

Returns

Type	Description
`function?`	The compiled chunk, or nil when compilation fails
`string?`	The compiler error when compilation fails

loadfile reads a Luau file from Volt's workspace and compiles it in the global environment. Compilation errors return nil and an error string. Invalid paths, missing files, and non-file paths raise errors.

Example

-- Create a Luau file
writefile("mymodule.lua", [[
    local message = "Hello from file!"
    return message
]])

-- Load and execute it
local chunk, err = loadfile("mymodule.lua")
if chunk then
    print(chunk()) -- "Hello from file!"
else
    warn(err)
end

Module System

-- Create a module file
writefile("utils.lua", [[
    local Utils = {}

    function Utils.greet(name)
        return "Hello, " .. name .. "!"
    end

    function Utils.add(a, b)
        return a + b
    end

    return Utils
]])

-- Load and use the module
local Utils = loadfile("utils.lua")()
print(Utils.greet("World")) -- "Hello, World!"
print(Utils.add(2, 3))      -- 5

Error Handling

local function safeLoadFile(path)
    if not isfile(path) then
        return nil, "File not found"
    end

    return loadfile(path)
end

readfile - Read raw file contents
loadstring - Load Luau from a string

loadfile

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