AssetDatabase.LoadAllAssetsAtPath(...) Yields Mysterious Nameless Asset

Questions & Answers
1

I have some code that uses AssetDatabase.LoadAllAssetsAtPath(string assetName) to create some assets that are put into an asset bundle. The assets are mostly images and text. The code looks like this:

           foreach(string assetPath in assetPathsList)
           {
             UnityEngine.Object[] assets = AssetDatabase.LoadAllAssetsAtPath(assetPath);
             foreach(UnityEngine.Object asset in assets)
             {
                writer.WriteLine(assetPath + "::" + asset.name + " (Type: " + asset.GetType().ToString() + ")");
                assetList.Add(asset);
             }
           }

For most of the assets I expect the size of the array to be 1 but in every case I get back two assets in the array. Here's some of the output:

Assets/Text/file.xml::file (Type: UnityEngine.TextAsset)
Assets/Text/file.xml:: (Type: UnityEngine.Object)
...
Assets/Graphics/image.png::image (Type: UnityEngine.Texture2D)
Assets/Graphics/image.png:: (Type: UnityEngine.Object)

file.txt is an xml file and so is correctly listed as a TextAsset. But what is the second one shown as a UnityEngine.Object? You can see similar results with the png. There is the expected UnityEngine.Texture2D and then the mysterious UnityEngine.Object. What is that?

2

The UnityEngine.Object is the parent class that the TextAsset object inherits from. If you want just the subclass, try LoadMainAssetAtPath instead:

 foreach(string assetPath in assetPathsList)
 {
     UnityEngine.Object asset = AssetDatabase.LoadMainAssetAtPath(assetPath);
     writer.WriteLine(assetPath + "::" + asset.name + " (Type: " + asset.GetType().ToString() + ")");
 }