Assigning array element to variable

Question

So I have an array of some names:

 var firstNames = new Array ();
 
 firstNames = ["Brian","Paul","George","Jacob","Richard"];

I want to assign a random name from this array to some variables:

 var person1 = "";
 var person2 = "";
 var person3 = "";
 
 var firstNames = new Array ();
     
 firstNames = ["Brian","Paul","George","Jacob","Richard"];

From what I've found looking for an answer to this already, this is supposed to work:

 var person1 = randomFName;
 var person2 = randomFName;
 var person3 = randomFName;
     
 var firstNames = new Array ();
 var randomFName = "";
 
 function Start () {
 
 randomFirstName();
 
 }
 
 function randomFirstName() {
         
 firstNames = ["Brian","Paul","George","Jacob","Richard"];
 
 randomFName = firstNames[Random.Range(0,firstNames.Length)];
 
 }

Now this gives me a few errors and I know that I'm probably way off and this should be simple. I just want to be able to assign one of the names from to array to a variable but I want it to be a random name every time. To be clear, I don't want "randomFName" to be set as a name from the array and then every "person" variable to be set as that name, but for a random name to be selected for everyone. I realize it's still possible for each variable to be set as the same name anyways.

Answer 1

Answer by rgowen · May 17, 2014 at 05:19 AM

You should probably post the specific errors or exceptions that are being thrown, that might be a little more helpful.
However, if I understand correctly what you are trying to do, I'd probably implement it like this:

 var person1;
 var person2;
 var person3;
  
 var firstNames = new Array ();
  
 function Start () {
     firstNames = ["Brian","Paul","George","Jacob","Richard"];
     person1 = getRandomFirstName();
     person2 = getRandomFirstName();
     person2 = getRandomFirstName();
 }
  
 function getRandomFirstName() {
     return firstNames[Random.Range(0,firstNames.Length)];
 }

If you're getting an off-by-one issue (possibly IndexOutOfRangeException), you might have to use Random.Range(0,firstNames.Length-1), as the Length property returns the number of items in the array, which is equal to the index of the last item plus one.

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Carnifex12 · May 17, 2014 at 09:48 PM 0

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Thanks for the reply, but I tried the code you posted and now I'm getting this error:

 NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
 Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.CheckNumericPromotion(IConvertible convertible)

rgowen · May 17, 2014 at 11:30 PM 0

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I'm not really sure what was wrong with it because I didn't get that error, but here is a corrected script that I tested and it works:

 #pragma strict
 
 public var person1 : String;
 public var person2 : String;
 public var person3 : String;
  
 var firstNames = new Array ();
  
 function Start () {
 firstNames = ["$$anonymous$$","Paul","George","Jacob","Richard"];
 person1 = getRandomFirstName();
 person2 = getRandomFirstName();
 person3 = getRandomFirstName();
 }
  
 function getRandomFirstName() {
 return firstNames[Random.Range(0,firstNames.length-1)];
 }

EDIT: Just realized that you're using Boo, I thought you were using Javascript so that's what I wrote the script in. I'd suggest using Javascript or C# over Boo as there's more support for it on Unity Answers and on the forums.

Carnifex12 · May 19, 2014 at 06:09 AM 0

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I figured it out, thanks for the help, I was getting that error because I used "Length" in the code ins$$anonymous$$d of "length"

Assigning array element to variable

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