Problem with accessing components of a custom class

Questions & Answers
1

So I have a script which creates a 2D array of GameObjects and then attaches a script

#pragma strict

var mapSize:int;
var map:GameObject;
var mapArray = new GameObject[10,10];

function Start ()
{
// build the map
map = GameObject.Find("Map");
var meshSize = map.renderer.bounds.size;
for(var i:float = 0.0; i < mapSize; i++)
	{
	for(var j:float = 0.0; j < mapSize; j++)
		{
		var mapTile = GameObject.CreatePrimitive(PrimitiveType.Plane);
		mapTile.transform.localScale = Vector3(.1,0,.1);
		mapTile.transform.position = Vector3(i-(mapSize/2),0,j-(mapSize/2));
		mapTile.AddComponent("MapTileScript");
		mapTile.name = "Tile"+i.ToString()+j.ToString();
		mapArray[i,j] = mapTile;
		}
	}
}

The script attached to the objects created looks like this

#pragma strict
var tile:MapTile;
Debug.Log(tile.type);

function Start () 
{
}

function Update () 
{
}

MapTile is a custom class created in a separate script which looks like this

#pragma strict

public class MapTile
{
	var x:float;
	var y:float;
	var type:String;
	var content:String;
}

When I run the game I can look in the inspector and see that the objects were created with the script attached containing the variable with the four components, but when I try to access on of those four components like this…

Debug.Log(tile.type);

I get the error

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

The error only occurs when the script is attached to a GameObject which the ‘AddComponent’ function.
I am completely stumped and would really appreciate some help on this.

2

I found a work around by doing

var tile:MapTile = new MapTile();

instead of

var tile:MapTile;

not sure why that works or if its even the correct way to do it, but there it is.