Assigning a gameobject to an array

Question

I am new to Unity, and programming, and have been searching and reading about arrays but cannot seem to find an answer to my questions.

For me to better understand an array. I thought a simple TicTacToe game would help. So far I have created only a single dimension with 3 cubes that are under an emptyObject as children and taged as "Player". Obviously their will be a total of 9 in a 2 dimension array. The human players will use the mouse to click on a cube to change the texture to X or O.

Now for the question: How do you assign the cubes name cube1, cube2, cube3 (which is what they are called in hierarchy) to the array. This is what I have so far that works but does not really identify which cube is which?

 void blockArray()
     {
         cubeArray = new string[3];
         cubeArray[0] = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player").tag;
         cubeArray[1] = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player").tag;
         cubeArray[2] = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player").tag;
         print (cubeArray[0]);
         print (cubeArray[1]);
         print (cubeArray[2]);
     }

the outcome of the print statement is just player 3 times. Instead of cube1, cube2, cube3.

Answer 1

Answer by Key_Less · Nov 21, 2013 at 07:18 PM

An alternative route you can experiment with would be to use a handle to each cube object. You could declare a public list of GameObjects within your class scope, attach the script to your emptyObject, and fill that list with your cubes inside of the inspector.

 // Add your cubes into this list from the Unity Inspector.
 public List<GameObject> Cubes;

This way you can index into the list and find the cube you want. Ex:

 print (Cubes[0].name); // prints: cube1

Add comment · Show 4 · Share

ToeTag · Nov 21, 2013 at 08:15 PM 0

Share

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately public List Cubes; produced an error. But was on the right track.

kromenak · Nov 21, 2013 at 09:58 PM 0

Share

Just FYI, C#'s generic containers, like List, are valuable tools. You just need to add "using System.Containers.Generic" to the top of your code files to use them.

ToeTag · Nov 22, 2013 at 02:24 AM 0

Share

I just saw this, I tried to add using System.Containers.Generic but it does not seem to be available in order to add. I see using System.Collections.Generic; is this what you meant?

Key_Less · Nov 22, 2013 at 06:35 PM 0

Share

Yes, that's what he meant.

Answer 2

Answer by ffxz7ff · Nov 21, 2013 at 07:26 PM

Well, you find three GameObjects with the tag "Player", and get their tag, which is "Player", and assign it to the array elements. Hence it prints out "Player".

As Key_Less pointed out, you could use the .name property of the game objects, which is what is shown in the hierarchy.

Add comment · Show 2 · Share

ffxz7ff · Nov 21, 2013 at 07:28 PM 1

Share

Also your 3 array elements will all contain the same cube, since you'll always get the first cube that's found with the tag "Player". You'll need to keep track of them when you declare them (as in storing them in a List or an Array, for example.)

ToeTag · Nov 22, 2013 at 02:31 AM 0

Share

I will be adding the additional 6 cubes once I figure out how to just do the simple array. The ultimate goal is to create a 3d style array [,,]. I am trying to take baby steps first lol.

Answer 3

If at all possible, it is probably easier if you assign the cubes to the array in the editor instead of at runtime. Sometimes, you need to dynamically find and assign GameObjects at runtime, but it is more error-prone. I'd suggest assigning the GameObjects in the Unity inspector. You could do that like this:

 public class Board : Monobehaviour
 {
     //Shows up in the unity inspector.
     public GameObject[] cubes;
 
     private void Awake()
     {
         //TODO: Do stuff with cubes.
     }
 }

And then assign the cube GameObjects in the editor at design time.

If you really want to do populate the array at runtime, and you have uniquely named your cubes, you could also do something like this:

 private void BlockArray()
 {
     GameObject parentGO = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
     cubeArray = new GameObject[parentGO.transform.childCount];
     for(int i = 0; i < parentGO.transform.childCount; ++i)
     {
         cubeArray[i] = GameObject.Find("cube" + i);
     }
 }

Personally, I don't really like using methods like FindWithTag or Find if possible, since they introduce assumptions about scene structure and could compile fine but blow up at runtime (what if the tag changes? or what if the someone changes the cube names?).

Answer 4

Answer by Fornoreason1000 · Nov 22, 2013 at 07:17 PM

try using FindGameObjectsWithTag instead, since it return all the objects with the player tag, not just the first one.

 void blockArray()
         {
            cubeArray = new string[3];
            cubeArray[0] = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Player")[0].name;
            cubeArray[1] = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Player")[1].name;
            cubeArray[2] = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Player")[2].name;
            print (cubeArray[0]);
            print (cubeArray[1]);
            print (cubeArray[2]);
         }

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag.html

Add comment · Share

Assigning a gameobject to an array

4 Replies

Your answer

Welcome to Unity Answers

Follow this Question

Related Questions