is there a monobehaviour method guaranteed to get called before I can call getter / setters for custom properties?

[saldavonschwartz]

Basically, I have a script that goes along the lines of:

public class EdgeCasting : MonoBehaviour {

private LineRenderer edgeRenderer;
private Vector3 _edgeOrigin;
private bool nextNodeCreationInProgress = false;

public Vector3 edgeOrigin {
	get {
		return _edgeOrigin;
	}
	
	set {
		_edgeOrigin = value;
		edgeRenderer.SetPosition(0, _edgeOrigin);
	}
}

void Start() {
	edgeRenderer =  transform.Find("Edge").GetComponent();
}

    ...

I noticed that if (from another object) I instantiate the prefab to which this script is attached and then try to set the edgeOrigin property, like so:

newEdge = (EdgeCasting)((GameObject)Instantiate(Resources.Load("Edge"), transform.position, Quaternion.identity)).GetComponent<EdgeCasting>();
newEdge.edgeOrigin = transform.position;

newEdge’s edgeRenderer is not yet initialized / assigned by the time I try to set it indirectly thru the edgeOrigin property.
I assumed Start() was a sort of monobehaviour “constructor” if you will and so it was guaranteed to be called before one was able to manipulate a script instance. I guess I was wrong. So, is there any way to make sure any private members are initialized before being able to start accessing properties in the script / class? I mean other than making the renderer a public property and manually assigning it before using edgeOrigin.

[whydoidoit]

You need to use Awake() as if it were a parameterless constructor.

Note that Awake does not run on Prefabs until they are instantiated, but you can call functions on your scripts on Prefabs (a generally bad idea unless you have some specific purpose in mind).