Best way to handle multiple buttons?

[jmgek]

Hey guys, I am creating a piano type system that will use the keyboard to use notes while playing the game. I do not want to have 10+ if checks to see if a player has pressed a button so is there any way I can make a manager that can handle events like this?

[Inaetaru]

Sorry for not providing complete example code, but this is how I would solve the problem:

1. Create a prefab (Unity - Manual: Prefabs) as a template for the button.
2. In GUI, create horizontal layout group (Unity - Manual: Horizontal Layout Group) as a parent for all these buttons.
3. Implement the manager (I Shall Call It.. SomethingManager) which contains references (Unity - Scripting API: SerializeField) for the prefab of the button and parent for button instance (the manager component can be put on the parent itself).
4. In Awake (https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/scripting/awake-and-start) method I would instantiate the prefab for each button (Unity - Manual: Instantiating Prefabs at run time) and change their parents to the parent with layout (Unity - Scripting API: Transform.SetParent)
5. For each instance, you can find the button script ( Button button = instance.GetComponent<Button>() ) and add listener to it’s onClick method (Unity - Scripting API: UI.Button.onClick).

Notes:

• If you want to change content of the button, there are multiple ways:

• Find the item (for example Text (http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/UI.Text.html) with GetComponentInChildren (Unity - Scripting API: Component.GetComponentInChildren)) and change it

• Implement special component for the button which is put on root and have instances for components which needs to change (that’s how I would do it)

• For adding listener for the button, you can use C#'s anonymous function (Anonymní funkce (Průvodce programováním v C#) | Microsoft Learn) for example:

     public void CreateInstances()
   {
     for(int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)
     {
       GameObject prefabInstance = Object.Instantiate(buttonPrefab);
       Button button = prefabInstance.GetComponent<Button>();
       button.onClick.AddListener(() => { OnButtonClicked(i); });
     }
   }
   
   public void OnButtonClicked(int buttonIndex)
   {
     // ...
   }
  

[viktorkadza]

for (int i = 0; i <= 20; i++)
{
GameObject button = Instantiate(buttonTemplate);

            image = Resources.Load<Sprite>("iconsCPL/"+i.ToString());
            texturelist.Add(Resources.Load<Texture>("iconsCPL/" + i.ToString()));
            var prefabsimage = button.gameObject.transform.GetChild(0);
            prefabsimage.GetComponent<Image>().sprite = image;


            button.SetActive(true);
            button.GetComponent<ButtonListButt>().SetIndex(i);
            button.transform.SetParent(buttonTemplate.transform.parent,false);
            button.gameObject.GetComponent<Button>().onClick.AddListener(delegate () { PrintText(button); });

        }

    }

    public void PrintText(GameObject g) 
    {
        float i = g.GetComponent<ButtonListButt>().GetIndex();
        int index = g.GetComponent<ButtonListButt>().GetIndex();
        i = i / 25;