WoW API: UnitName

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Returns the name and realm of the specified unit.

name, realm = UnitName("unit")

Parameters

Arguments

("unit")

unit

String - The UnitId to query (e.g. "player", "party2", "pet", "target" etc.)

Returns

name

String - The name of the specified unit, or nil if not applicable (e.g., if the specified unit is "target" but the player has no target selected).

realm

String - The realm the specified unit is from. If from your own realm, then realm == nil (but the 2nd return value is still there). This is as of 1.12

Example

local playerName = UnitName("player");
ChatFrame1:AddMessage('Hi my name is: ' .. playerName);

Result

Prints the player's name to the chat frame. e.g.

Hi my name is: Octon

Details

• UnitName("unit") (or any other unit) will return "Unknown Entity" (Actually the value of the UNKNOWNOBJECT global) if called before the unit in question has been fully loaded into the world.

• The realm return will be nil even if the player is from a different realm, if it is out of visible range.
• Realm name will not include server type

• Note that this function always returns two values even though the latter may be nil. The difference is usually moot, but there are some cases where it matters, e.g. tinsert(myTable, UnitName("player")), which would previously work, but will now cause errors. The fix is to put the expression in parenthesis: tinsert(myTable, (UnitName("player")) ).