How do I reference a class made up of classes from a Unity3D monobehaviour?

Question

I have made a class to organize some data, and a class made up of several of those classes (Subclass?) so I can do something like...

classA.classB.value = 1;

However I can't figure out how to reference my classes. If anybody knows how I should go about it that would be great!

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;

class Gene {
    public string name;
    public float value;
    public float complexity;

    public Gene() {
        name = "";
        value = 0;
        complexity = 0;
    }

    public Gene(string Name, float Value, float Complexity) {
        name = Name;
        value = Value;
        complexity = Complexity;
    }
}

class Genome {
    public Gene agility;
    public Gene intelligence;
    public Gene strength;

    public Genome(){
        agility = new Gene();
        intelligence = new Gene();
        strength = new Gene();
    }

    public Genome(Gene Agility, Gene Intelligence, Gene Strength) {
        agility = Agility;
        intelligence = Intelligence;
        strength = Strength;
    }
    public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() {
        return (IEnumerator)this;
    }
}

public class Life : MonoBehaviour {
    Genome genome;      //Warning Life.genome is never assigned to, and will always have its default value null
    Quantity quantity;  //Warning Life.quantity is never assigned to, and will always have its default value null

    void OnEnable() {
        genome = /*???*/;   //How do I add the reference?
        quantity = /*???*/; //How do I add the reference?

        genome.agility.name = "Agility"; //On Runtime: NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
        genome.agility.complexity = 100;

        genome.intelligence.name = "Intelligence";
        genome.intelligence.complexity = 1000;

        genome.strength.name = "Strength";
        genome.strength.complexity = 100;
    }
}

Answer 1

You have to use the new keyword to initialize both genome and quantity . You use the new keyword for initialization when the class you are trying to initialize does not derive from MonoBehaviour . Your Genome and Quantity classes does not derive from MonoBehaviour so the new keyword is the proper way to do initialize them.

Genome genome = null;
Quantity quantity = null;

void Start()
{
    //initialize
    genome = new Genome(new Gene("", 0, 0), new Gene("", 0, 0), new Gene("", 0, 0));
    quantity = new Quantity ();

    //Now you can use both references
    genome.agility.name = "Agility"; 
    genome.agility.complexity = 100;

    genome.intelligence.name = "Intelligence";
    genome.intelligence.complexity = 1000;

    genome.strength.name = "Strength";
    genome.strength.complexity = 100;


}

Now if your Genome and Quantity classes both derive from MonoBehaviour . You should never should the new keyword to initialize them.

For example:

class Gene :MonoBehaviour{

}

You don't use the new keyword for that, you use addComponent or Instantiate GameObject the script is attached to. And you should never have a constructor in the class if it will derive from MonoBehaviour .

void Start()
{
  genome = gameObject.AddComponent<Gene>();
}