Lists of Generic Scriptable objects

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi guys,

So I am now using SO a lot in my project and I now have a problem where I need to create lists of these scriptable objects.
So this is easy I can make a SO (MyScriptableObject) and in another script make a List.

But say I have CatSO, DogSO both have color and age. So I do not want to create two Lists, I want to be able to have one List and be able to drop in cats and dogs.
And be able to access their names and age?

I tried to create an empty Animal SO and derive from it when creating CatSO and DogSO. All good.
Now I have a different script I create List and I can drop in Cats and Dogs , all good.
But for some reason, I can’t access cats and dogs public properties.

List<Animal> animals = new List<Animal>();
private string name;

name = animals[0].name;

Thank you

2

Or better is to have an Animal list as a separate SO with cats and dogs :slight_smile:

3

Remove the Color and Age properties from the Cat and Dog. Add those properties to the Animal. Then, you can access those properties from a List and Cat and Dog will inherit them from the base Animal class:

public class Animal
{
    public Color Color { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

public class Dog : Animal
{

}

public class Cat : Animal
{
 
}

Dog dog = new Dog();
Cat cat = new Cat();

List<Animal> animals = new List<Animal>();
animals.Add(dog);
animals.Add(cat);

foreach(Animal animal in animals) {
    Debug.Log(animal.Age);
}
4

Thank you @wbm1113
Yep, I see. I started with this. This is clear. But I am working with Scriptable Objects.
If I will keep name and age in animal, it will mean I will not be able to set these in Cat and Dog scriptable assets!?

5

It seems I have to use an abstract class with name and age in it …?

6

Ok Cool it works with Abstract Class!

7

It doesn’t need to be abstract, abstract just ensures you don’t create instances of Animal.

serialized fields that you inherit from a base class will be settable in your editor.

You can do this:

public class Animal : ScriptableObject
{
    [SerializeField]
    public Color color;
    [SerializeField]
    public int Age;
}

public class Dog : Animal {}

public class Cat : Animal {}

Now personally I probably would make Animal abstract… but that has nothing to do with if the fields are serialized.

8

Thank you @lordofduct it make sense

9

Ok, so I have to declare some field within base class?
Otherwise, if I am trying to access a list item I am getting an error :

 'DataBase' does not contain a definition for 'StreetColor' and no accessible extension method 'StreetColor' accepting a first argument of type 'DataBase' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
10

Never mind got it to work :slight_smile: