Access prefab's script without instantiating

Questions & Answers
1

I want to access a script I have attached to a prefab to get some public values from it. I am creating several prefabs that all use the same script, but with different values (to assign resource costs to placeable buildings).

I want to access these values from a script I have attached to a UI button to see if I should enable the button (the button will spawn a structure for placement by the player). If they have the resources, then instantiate. I want to avoid instantiating first though since the entire idea is to see if I should instantiate in the first place.

Is there a way to do this? Is there a better design pattern I should perhaps be investigating? I’m using C# btw.

EDIT: What I ended up doing is creating a single class that acts as a list of each building I have available. Each building is instantiated once in this list as a gameobject on load of the game. In that way, I can reference the scripts contained in them. also allows me to quickly clone them without loading the prefab constantly.

2

No but you can store the settings you need say on a different GameObject with a holding script and then set them for the instance of the object if/when you instantiate it.

I sometimes use this to reference objects:

GameObject newItem = Instantiate(itemPrefab) as GameObject; 
newItem.GetComponent<MenuItm>().myArrayNumber = myCount;

It just sets an int to the myArrayNumber int in the MenuItem script.