Null reference exception in an if statement that checks for it.

Questions & Answers
1

I’m trying to make a script for a light switch and it has a bit that looks like this:

public bool start_off = true;
public Light light0;
public Light light1;
public Light light2;
public Light light3;
public Light light4;
private Light[] lights;

void Start ()
    {
	    if (light0 != null)
        {
            lights[0] = light0;
        }
        if (light1 != null)
        {
            lights[1] = light1;
        }
        if (light2 != null)
        {
            lights[2] = light2;
        }
        if (light3 != null)
        {
            lights[3] = light3;
        }
        if (light4 != null)
        {
            lights[4] = light4;
        }

        //shutting lights off, if they should be off by default
        if(start_off == true)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < lights.Length; i++)
            {
                if(lights *!= null)*

{
lights*.enabled = false;*
}
}
}
}

The line where it says lights[0] = light0 throws this error:
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
(wrapper stelemref) object:stelemref (object,intptr,object)
SwitchLights.Start () (at Assets/Scripts/Switches/SwitchLights.cs:24)
How do I fix this?
The strange part is that light0 is not empty, but assigned in inspector via drag & drop (and i’d like to retain the possibility of dragging and dropping).

2

you have to initialize the array and the length before you do anything with it.

 void Start (){
lights= new Light[10] ;