How to find child object, without name or tag.

Question

Hello,

Before I explain my issue, I'd like to point out that this isn't a "ohmigosh I'm stuck I cannot continue without help ever" I can very easily continue; there is an easy-ish workaround, but it ain't pretty.

I'm working on a group project, and I'm creating a chandelier that's supposed to be able to have its rope burnt whenever our main character attacks it. I'm using parent + child to "know" which part of the rope is above, and which part is below the targeted rope.

Hierarchy

The top-most is an immovable, empty game object for easy implementation.

the script I'm working with right now is as follows:

 private GameObject RopeAbove;
 public GameObject RopeBelow;
 private bool IsBurning;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start () {
     RopeAbove = transform.parent.gameObject;
     Debug.Log(RopeAbove);
     Debug.Log(RopeBelow);
 }

Of course, this works, but it's not a "pretty" solution. I'd like to know if you can call a child in the same way I have called the parent.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by WesleyWorks · Oct 25, 2018 at 11:21 AM

@Vicarian helped me out; however, there was a problem with using "transform.GetChild(0)", instead you should use "transform.GetChild(0).GameObject". This will make it return the gameobject instead of the transform, which is what I wanted.

Fixed code:

 private GameObject RopeAbove;
 private GameObject RopeBelow;
 private bool IsBurning = false;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start () {
     RopeAbove = transform.parent.gameObject;
     Debug.Log(RopeAbove);
     if (transform.childCount > 0){  // Prevents ArgumentOutOfRangeException
         RopeBelow = transform.GetChild(0).gameObject;
     } 
     Debug.Log(RopeBelow);
 }
 
 // Update is called once per frame
 void Update () {
     if(IsBurning == true){
         //RopeAbove.BurningScript.IsBurning = true;
         //RopeBelow.BurningScript.IsBurning = true;
     }
 }

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Answer 2

Answer by Vicarian · Oct 23, 2018 at 02:09 PM

Looks like each individual transform has only one child, so transform.GetChild(0) ought to work:

 if (transform.childCount > 0)  // Prevents ArgumentOutOfRangeException
     RopeBelow = transform.GetChild(0);

If you reference the RopeBelow object from script, you'll need to make sure it has a value before accessing its members:

 if (RopeBelow) // Prevents NullReferenceException
     // Do stuff with RopeBelow

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WesleyWorks · Oct 24, 2018 at 10:11 AM 0

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Hi, for me when I attempt to use "if (transform.GetChildCount() > 0" Visual Studio code gives me an error:

'Transform.GetChildCount()' is obsolete: 'warning use Transform.childCount ins$$anonymous$$d (UnityUpgradable) -> Transform.childCount' [Assembly-CSharp]

Sorry for taking so long to respond.

Vicarian WesleyWorks · Oct 24, 2018 at 01:17 PM 0

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Apologies, use

 if (transform.childCount > 0)

Ins$$anonymous$$d. I went looking for that property in the docs but must've overlooked it.

How to find child object, without name or tag.

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