• 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 /
avatar image
0
Question by TheokieZA · Dec 05, 2010 at 09:26 AM · nullreferenceexception

NullReferenceException

I've got a function that checks for closest enemy and return it if within range:

target = FindClosestEnemy().transform;

But while it's out of range I get

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

This hogs the frames/sec as it keeps writing the error to the log file.

Thanks

Comment
Add comment
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

3 Replies

· Add your reply
  • Sort: 
avatar image
0

Answer by Eric5h5 · Dec 05, 2010 at 09:32 AM

As the error says, you're trying to refer to an object that doesn't exist. Check if it's null first before you do anything with it.

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
avatar image
0

Answer by Justin Warner · Dec 05, 2010 at 03:26 PM

if(enemy != null)
{
   //Do what you want when their is an enemy.
}
else
{
   //Do what you want when their isn't an enemy.
}
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
avatar image
0

Answer by SteveFSP · Dec 05, 2010 at 05:20 PM

Null essentially means "has not been assigned to anything". And you can't access any field or functions on something that is null, or you'll get an error and your script will exit.

In your case, FindClosestEnemy() is returning null when there are no enemies in range. So when you try to access the transform field, the script is failing.

If there is a possibility that something will return null, you need to include a null check before using it. In this case:

closestEnemy = FindClosestEnemy();
if (closestEnemy != null)
{
    // Put all code that depends on the enemy here.
    // Don't use closestEnemy outside this block.
    target = closestEnemy.transform;
    // More stuff.
}
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

No one has followed this question yet.

Related Questions

i have written this code to spawn a segments of enemies i don't get errors at all but it didn't work .. what should i do ? 2 Answers

Cleaning up before LoadScene 0 Answers

Instantiated cloned GameObject returns Null outside Start method 0 Answers

GameObject.Find returning NullReferenceException 4 Answers

How to Connect Difficult Object using UnityEngine.Network 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