Make a public field, drag it in… here’s why, and also a checklist if you want to persist in this GetComponent() craziness:
Keep in mind that using GetComponent() and its kin (in Children, in Parent, plural, etc) to try and tease out Components at runtime is definitely deep into super-duper-uber-crazy-Ninja advanced stuff.
Don’t use all those Get/Find things unless you absolutely MUST use them. And when you do decide you’re ready to do it, here’s the bare minimum of stuff you absolutely MUST keep track of if you insist on using these crazy Ninja methods:
- what you’re looking for:
→ one particular thing?
→ many things?
- where it might be located (what GameObject?)
- where the Get/Find command will look:
→ on one GameObject? Which one? Do you have a reference to it?
→ on every GameObject?
→ on a subset of GameObjects?
- what criteria must be met for something to be found (enabled, named, etc.)
- if your code expects one instance and later you have many (intentional or accidental), does it handle it?
If you are missing knowledge about even ONE of the things above, your call is likely to FAIL.
If you have issues, start debugging. We know the above methods will ALWAYS work so find out what you’re doing wrong before bothering to make a forum post.
This sort of coding is to be avoided at all costs unless you know exactly what you are doing.
Botched attempts at using Get- and Find- are responsible for more crashes than useful code, IMNSHO.
If you run into an issue with any of these calls, start with the documentation to understand why.
There is a clear set of extremely-well-defined conditions required for each of these calls to work, as well as definitions of what will and will not be returned.
In the case of collections of Components, the order will NEVER be guaranteed, even if you happen to notice it is always in a particular order on your machine.
It is ALWAYS better to go The Unity Way™ and make dedicated public fields and drag in the references you want.