Lua for Beginners: Error Handling — Handling Things That Go Wrong with pcall & assert | Episode 27

Things go wrong — and Lua gives you tools to handle it gracefully. In this episode we learn error handling: raising errors with error(), catching them safely with pcall() and xpcall(), validating with assert(), and the idiomatic ok/err pattern that Lua programmers use everywhere. Every keystroke is shown on screen with 3-second pauses so you can follow along at your own pace. What You'll Learn: - error(message) — raising an error that stops execution - pcall(fn, args) — protected call that catches errors - xpcall(fn, handler) — protected call with custom error handler - assert(value, message) — validate or die with a message - The ok, err pattern — idiomatic Lua error handling Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:12 Preview 0:44 Triggering an Error (error + pcall) 1:45 Running — first pcall output 2:13 pcall With a Real Error 3:34 Running — real error output 3:47 Safe Divide With Assert 6:07 Running — assert output 6:20 xpcall With Handler 8:37 Running — xpcall output 8:51 The ok, err Pattern 12:45 Running — final output 12:58 Review 13:13 Recap 13:45 Endscreen Key Takeaways: 1. error() raises an error and halts execution 2. pcall returns ok, result — true on success, false with error message 3. xpcall adds a custom error handler for stack traces 4. assert checks a condition and raises error if it fails 5. The ok, err pattern is the idiomatic way to handle errors in Lua This is Episode 27 of the Learn Lua in Neovim series. New episodes cover type conversion, metatables, OOP, and the Neovim Lua API — all coded inside Neovim. Taught by CelesteAI. Like & subscribe for more tutorials! #lua #neovim #programming #tutorial #beginners #learnlua #luaprogramming #neovimtutorial #luapcall #luaerrorhandling #coding Tags lua, lua tutorial, learn lua, lua error handling, lua pcall, lua xpcall, lua assert, lua error, lua protected call, lua ok err pattern, lua exception handling, lua for beginners, neovim lua, neovim tutorial, learn lua in neovim, lua episode 27, programming tutorial, coding tutorial, beginner programming, lua 2026, neovim 2026, screenkey, code along, lua intermediate, lua error recovery