transform.position question

Unity Engine
1 
using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class SetupObjects : MonoBehaviour {
	GameObject generic;
	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () {
		generic=GameObject.Find("SpritePlane");
		generic.transform.position.x=0;
	}
	
	// Update is called once per frame
	void Update () {
	
	}
}

Why does that code tell me that:
"Cannot modify the return value of ‘UnityEngine.Transform.position’ because it is not a variable.

2

The error message is accurate. Transform position isn’t a variable, but a property. You’ll need to fetch transform.position into a temporary Vector3, change its x there, and then save it back to transform.position.

3

Docs are way to cryptic for my tastes sometimes.
Couldn’t find what you suggested anywhere in them.
Thanks to that suggestion, here was the working results.
(another reason why I think docs need expanded on)

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class SetupObjects : MonoBehaviour {
	GameObject generic;
	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () {
		generic=GameObject.Find("SpritePlane");
		Vector3 tmpVec=generic.transform.position;
		Debug.Log(tmpVec[0]);
		tmpVec[0]=0;
		generic.transform.position=tmpVec;		
	}	
	// Update is called once per frame
	void Update () {
	}
}
4

Your initial approach does work in JavaScript. It does not work in C# though, because structs (and Vector3 is a struct) are always passed and returned by value. So the moment you write “transform.position” in C#, you get just a value back, it already does not know it comes from “transform.position”. Hence you need to copy it to temp. variable, change it, and assign it back.

5

I am finding this to be the case on many levels throughout the docs and the examples, since it was all geared towards javascript to begin with, I am finding it hard to translate to C#. Starting to catch on though. I am trying to avoid the work around which is to switch all that I am doing over to Javascript.

6

It becomes pretty intuitive after awhile :wink: