Love2d move an object on screen

Question

I am attempting to use keyboard input to translate a label around the screen. Currently only down and left are functioning. My code is below.

debug = true
down = 0
up = 0
left = 0
right = 0
text = 'non'

x = 100
y = 100

dx = 0
dy = 0
function love.load(arg)

end

function love.update(dt)
    if love.keyboard.isDown('escape') then
        love.event.push('quit')
    end

    if up == 1 then
        dy = -1
    end
    if up == 0 then
        dy = 0
    end

    if down == 1 then
        dy = 1
    end
    if down == 0 then
        dy = 0
    end

    if right == 1 then
        dx = 1
    end
    if right == 0 then
        dx = 0
    end

    if left == 1 then
        dx = -1
    end
    if left == 0 then
        dx = 0
    end
end

function love.keypressed(key)
  if key == 'up' or key == 'w' then
      text = 'up'
            up = 1
  end
    if key == 'down' or key == 's' then
      text = 'down'
            down = 1
  end
    if key == 'right' or key == 'd' then
      text = 'right'
            right = 1
  end
    if key == 'left' or key == 'a' then
      text = 'left'
            left = 1
  end
end

function love.keyreleased(key)
    text = 'non'

    if key == 'up' or key == 'w' then
        up = 0
    end
    if key == 'down' or key == 's' then
        down = 0
    end
    if key == 'right' or key == 'd' then
        right = 0
    end
    if key == 'left' or key == 'a' then
        left = 0
    end
end

function love.draw(dt)
    x = x + dx
    y = y + dy
    love.graphics.print(text, x, y)
end

Experimentation has shown that the order of if statements in the love.update(dt) section effects which directions work but I cannot get all four to work at the same time.

Answer 1

change love.update and love.draw to something like this:

function love.update(dt)
    if love.keyboard.isDown('escape') then
        love.event.push('quit')
    end

    dx, dy = 0

    if up == 1 then
        dy = -1
    end

    if down == 1 then
        dy = 1
    end

    if right == 1 then
        dx = 1
    end

    if left == 1 then
        dx = -1
    end

   x = x + dx
   y = y + dy
end

function love.draw(dt)
    love.graphics.print(text, x, y)
end

when you check for input, you properly assigns them the values if it is true that the button is pressed, but you also check if the button is NOT pressed and then un-assign the value. so if up was pressed, the check for down not being pressed immediately overwrites the value assigned. also you may want to scale dx and dy by the dt value depending on your target fps (if you're not using fixed timestep that is, to make the speed of movement the same regardless of the a machine's FPS).