How do I access a class that is the parent of a variable which I know?

Question

I am trying to make a list of "tiles". For this I defined a class named "Tile":

 [System.Serializable]
    class Tile
    {
        [SerializeField]
        GameObject platform;

        [SerializeField]
        List<string> connectionNorth, 
                     connectionSouth, 
                     connectionWest, 
                     connectionEast;
    }
    [SerializeField]
    List<Tile> tiles = new List<Tile>();

Now...If I find the GameObject that is stored in the field platform (does not matter how I find it, with a raycast, collision, trigger...etc.) How do I access it's parent class (the instance of the class that this specific gameobject is stored in, during runtime)?. By doing this I want to compare,let say connectionNorth list with some other list I have.

Answer 1

You'll have to make a relation between gameobject and his parent.

Or GameObject have a "Parent" Property or field or you store the relation in another way.

Answer 2

Your Tile object has to be instantiated on a MonoBehaviour component, so you'd have something of the kind:

public class Platform : MonoBehaviour
{
     public Tile tile;
}

then you can use platform.GetComponent<Platform>().tile on the platform reference and access the Tile member.

You can compare tiles together, most likely with a static method:

public static bool CompareNorth(Tile a, Tile b)
{
     return a.connectionNorth == b.connectionNorth;
}

It appears your connections are lists. I would think a tile only has up, down, left, right so there would be no need for a list. If it were to be a list anyway:

public static bool CompareNorth(Tile a, Tile b)
{
     var firstNotSecond = a.connectionNorth.Except(b.connectionNorth).ToList();
     var secondNotFirst = b.connectionNorth.Except(a.connectionNorth).ToList();
     return !firstNotSecond.Any() && !secondNotFirst.Any();
}

Quickest way to compare two generic lists for differences

Answer 3

It's not totally clear what you mean by parent .

• If you mean the parent GameObject in the Scene Hierachy then you can simply access its Transform.parent

   Transform parentTransform = platform.transform.parent;

• If you rather mean to find out in which class your platform is referenced.. you can't. The same GameObject can be referenced in n different other classes, there is no such thing like a parent here. You would need a different data structure for this like maybe two Dictionary s for being able to go forth and back between GameObject and Tile like eg

  public class WhereYouUseIt: MonoBehaviour { public Dictionary<Tile, GameObject> GetGameObject = new Dictionary<Tile, GameObject>(); public Dictionary<GameObject, Tile> GetTile = new Dictionary<GameObject, Tile>(); public void AddTileGameObjectPair(Tile tile, GameObject obj) { // Ofcourse you probably would want some checks // eg if one of the references is already used as Key somewhere GetTile.Add(tile, obj); GetGameObject.Add(obj, tile); } }

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In your description however you say you want to compare your lists.

Can't you simply do something like

if(connectionNorth.Contains(XYZ)) ...

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Note

Btw Unity serialization does only work to a certain nesting level afaik. You might get trouble referencing a List<Tile> within the class Tile .