• Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
  • Asset Store
  • Get Unity

UNITY ACCOUNT

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account
  • Blog
  • Forums
  • Answers
  • Evangelists
  • User Groups
  • Beta Program
  • Advisory Panel

Navigation

  • Home
  • Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
    • Blog
    • Forums
    • Answers
    • Evangelists
    • User Groups
    • Beta Program
    • Advisory Panel

Unity account

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account

Language

  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
    • Default
    • Help Room
    • META
    • Moderators
    • Topics
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Badges
  • Home /
  • Help Room /
avatar image
0
Question by calebaker · Aug 27, 2015 at 08:28 PM · inspectorgameobject.findgamobject

How to properly reference a game object

If I attempt to assign a GameObject to a private variable in Start() or Awake() then access that object I get NullReferenceException.

But if I make it public and assign it via inspector it works fine. What am I doing wrong?


T$$anonymous$$s works if drag and drop the game object into myObject via the inspector.

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 
 public class ChangeControls : MonoBehaviour {
 public GameObject myObject;
     
     void ChangeMyObject()
     {
         myObject.SomeValue = 42;
     }   
 }

T$$anonymous$$s however does not work.

  using UnityEngine;
  using System.Collections;
  
  
  public class ChangeControls : MonoBehaviour {
  private GameObject myObject;
      void Start()
     {
         myObject = GameObject.Find("My Object");
     }
      void ChangeMyObject()
      {
          myObject.SomeValue = 42;
      }   
  }
Comment
Add comment · Show 2
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image Dave-Carlile · Aug 27, 2015 at 08:29 PM 1
Share
avatar image calebaker · Aug 28, 2015 at 01:32 PM 0
Share

3 Replies

· Add your reply
  • Sort: 
avatar image
0
Best Answer

Answer by calebaker · Aug 28, 2015 at 08:29 PM

I ended up scrapping the script and created a new one from scratch and now it works.

The only t$$anonymous$$ng I can come up with is somet$$anonymous$$ng (a reference) had to be corrupted in Unity because the new script exactly matches the old one.

Comment
Add comment · Show 1 · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image Mako-Infused · Aug 28, 2015 at 10:13 PM 0
Share
avatar image
0

Answer by Mako-Infused · Aug 27, 2015 at 08:34 PM

There's a chance that the line:

 myObject = GameObject.Find("My Object");

Is not finding the object. In w$$anonymous$$ch case it would be null, of course that can be prevented by using a null check when assigning values.

Additionally, I would try moving your find of the object into an "Awake" method instead of "Start". T$$anonymous$$s is necessary if your "ChangeMyObject()" method is being invoked before the value is assigned.

Comment
Add comment · Show 4 · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image calebaker · Aug 28, 2015 at 01:39 PM 0
Share
avatar image Landern · Aug 28, 2015 at 01:56 PM 0
Share
avatar image Mako-Infused · Aug 28, 2015 at 02:09 PM 0
Share
avatar image calebaker · Aug 28, 2015 at 02:23 PM 0
Share
avatar image
0

Answer by Barachiel · Aug 28, 2015 at 03:38 PM

Quickly testing t$$anonymous$$s out, using t$$anonymous$$s script:

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 
 public class ChangeControls : MonoBehaviour
 {
     private GameObject myObject;
 
     void Start()
     {
         myObject = GameObject.Find("My Object");
 
         if(myObject != null)
         {
             ChangeMyObject();
         }
     }
 
     void ChangeMyObject()
     {
         Debug.Log("Found!");
     }
 }

No errors are returned and it works fine. T$$anonymous$$s suggests that it's somet$$anonymous$$ng else in your script, perhaps 'myObject.SomeValue'.

Since it works fine if you assign it via inspector, perhaps you could explain more about what t$$anonymous$$s value is, since in the code provided it makes no sense.

Comment
Add comment · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users

Your answer

Hint: You can notify a user about this post by typing @username

Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 524.3 kB each and 1.0 MB total.

Welcome to Unity Answers

If you’re new to Unity Answers, please check our User Guide to help you navigate through our website and refer to our FAQ for more information.

Before posting, make sure to check out our Knowledge Base for commonly asked Unity questions.

Check our Moderator Guidelines if you’re a new moderator and want to work together in an effort to improve Unity Answers and support our users.

Follow this Question

Answers Answers and Comments

5 People are following this question.

avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image

Related Questions

Assigned Prefab to generic Script in Inspector is lost at runtime - Intended or bug? 0 Answers

No Loop Time Options in Animation Inspector 1 Answer

in inspector,"script" shows None,and icon is white,script cann't be found and edit 1 Answer

public bool not showing in inspector 1 Answer

I have assigned it, but I get an error of Unassigned Reference Exception! 1 Answer


Enterprise
Social Q&A

Social
Subscribe on YouTube social-youtube Follow on LinkedIn social-linkedin Follow on Twitter social-twitter Follow on Facebook social-facebook Follow on Instagram social-instagram

Footer

  • Purchase
    • Products
    • Subscription
    • Asset Store
    • Unity Gear
    • Resellers
  • Education
    • Students
    • Educators
    • Certification
    • Learn
    • Center of Excellence
  • Download
    • Unity
    • Beta Program
  • Unity Labs
    • Labs
    • Publications
  • Resources
    • Learn platform
    • Community
    • Documentation
    • Unity QA
    • FAQ
    • Services Status
    • Connect
  • About Unity
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Affiliates
    • Security
Copyright © 2020 Unity Technologies
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Cookies Settings
"Unity", Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Anonymous
  • Sign in
  • Create
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
  • Default
  • Help Room
  • META
  • Moderators
  • Explore
  • Topics
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Badges