Custom On(method) Functions

I want to create action buttons for a character: and was wondering if there was a better way of doing it than putting it all in the update function.

essentially this is what I would like to accomplish:

change

// Update is called once per frame
	void Update () {
		if (Input.GetButtonDown("Respawn")) {
			Respawn();
		}
		if (Input.GetButtonDown("Switch Character")) {
			SwitchCharacter();
		}
		if (Input.GetButtonDown("Use Item")) {
			UseItem();
		}
	}

to each have their own (overridable method? Is what it would be called?)

void OnRespawnButton() {
  //do stuff
}
void OnSwitchCharButton() {
  //do stuff
}
void UseItemButton() {
  //do stuff
}

Where would I begin to set this up, and is it even possible?
note that there is a OnMouseDown() function, I am trying to create a similar functionality for all my other actions. This way it is not being called on every Update, but only when it is triggered.

Unity doesn't provide an event callback for keyboard input. Like in most game engines the input have to be polled each frame. Checking for some KeyDown-events is nothing bad. You should use the KeyCode version of those functions if you worry about performance ;)

btw. OnMouseDown and OnMouseUp also does a implicit raycast every frame to check the object below the cursor. On mobile those events won't fire because due to performance they removed this automatic raycasting.

ps. well, actually there is a callback for keyboard input. The OnGUI function. OnGUI should be renamed to OnEventCallback or something like that but that would just complicate the understanding of the GUI system. Every OnGUI call is bound to a specific event. The actual event can be read with Event.current.

You can check for Event.current.type == EventType.KeyDown.

edit

Oh and just another little hint:

If you want to create a base class that offers those methods so you can override them in a subclass you have to declare them as virtual and in the sub classes you have to use the override keyword:

public class MyBaseClass : MonoBehaviour
{
    public virtual void OnRespawnButton(){ }
    public virtual void OnUseItemButton(){ }
    public virtual void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.R))
            OnRespawnButton();
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E))
            OnUseItemButton();
    }
}

public class MyDerivedClass : MyBaseClass
{
    public override void OnRespawnButton()
    {
        // Do something
    }
    public override void Update()
    {
        base.Update();
        // Do your additional update stuff here
    }
}

I don’t know of any method to override monodevelop but here’s how I would accomplish what you are talking about. I actually use this in my scripts.

function RespawnButton () {
 // Do Respawn Stuff
} // End RespawnButton

function OnGUI () {
    if(GUI.Button(Rect(across,down,length,height), "I'm a Button")) {RespawnButton();}
} // End OnGUI

That way RespawnButton() is only executed if the button is pushed and the RespawnButton() function is ignored by the Update() function. I just customize my buttons with textures to look like icons and whatnot. Hope this helps!

If Unity exposed the InputManager better (vote for that here), you could easily implement such OnFooKey functions generically. But for now you have to enumerate them manually as Bunny83 describes.