C# if Statement Checking for Null Causing Null?

Questions & Answers
1

I have this script in which I’m checking to see if a gameobject variable is null. However when I run the script the console is telling me that the if statement is causing a null reference exception. Any ideas why? Both shooterPlayer and glaveRotateAround are assigned so the null reference exception isn’t coming from them.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class AssignShipPlayer : MonoBehaviour {
public GlaveRotateAround glaveRotateAround;
public ShooterPlayer shooterPlayer;
	// Use this for initialization
	void Awake () {
		shooterPlayer = GetComponent<ShooterPlayer>();
	}
	
	// Update is called once per frame
	void Update () {
		if(shooterPlayer.curShotGO != null){
			glaveRotateAround = shooterPlayer.curShotGO.GetComponent<GlaveRotateAround>();
			glaveRotateAround.ship = transform.parent.transform;
		}
	}
}
2

There are two ways for this to be happening.

  1. shooterPlayer is null, which would mean your GetComponent call in Awake is failing. Try printing out the value of shooterPlayer before the if statement: Debug.Log(shooterPlayer). You say it is assigned, which seems like you’re talking about from within the inspector - but your Awake call is going to overwrite that value.

  2. If curChotGo is a property and it’s getter throws the exception