Creating Dictionary<string, class>

Question

In C# with Unity i am trying to create a Dictionary of Classes.

All the classes inherit from a base Class (Building Script) which has a number of Virtual Methods

i have set up my Dictionary thus:

Dictionary<string, BuildingScript> buildingScripts = new Dictionary<string, BuildingScript>();

And am trying to add to the Dictionary thus:

buildingScripts.Add("Farm", FarmScript);
buildingScripts.Add("Hunter", HunterScript);
buildingScripts.Add("Fisher", FisherScript);

The compiler is recongising the inheritance so i am trying to work out what i have missed.

The error messages are:

• error CS0119: Expression denotes a type', where a variable', value' or method group' was expected
• The best overloaded method match for 'System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary.Add(string, BuildingScript)' has some invalid arguments
• Argument #2' cannot convert object' expression to type `BuildingScript'

Answer 1

Your dictionary has been declared as Dictionary<string, BuildingScript> , so its value should be an instance of BuildingScript .

Consider difference: FarmScript itself is type, but new FarmScript() is instance of that type.

So your code should look like:

buildingScripts.Add("Farm", new FarmScript());
buildingScripts.Add("Hunter", new HunterScript());
buildingScripts.Add("Fisher", new FisherScript());

Answer 2

Although not really shown in the posts, but they seem to be the classes to me:

FarmScript //class
HunterScript //class
FisherScript //class

while what you need are the instances:

FarmScript farmScript = new FarmScript(); //instances of the classes
HunterScript hunterScript = new HunterScript();
FisherScript fisherScript = new FisherScript();

This should be OK:

buildingScripts.Add("Farm", farmScript);
buildingScripts.Add("Hunter", hunterScript);
buildingScripts.Add("Fisher", fisherScript);

Answer 3

OK, solved it myself.... though if there are better ways of doing this (and i sure bet there are) then please post them so i can learn.

I changed the Add's to the Dictionary like this:

FarmScript bs1 = new FarmScript();
DictionaryStore.buildingScripts.Add("Farm", bs1);
HunterScript bs2 = new HunterScript();
DictionaryStore.buildingScripts.Add("Hunter", bs2);
FisherScript bs3 = new FisherScript();
DictionaryStore.buildingScripts.Add("Fisher", bs3);

Problems all solved!