Using if with multiple tag search

Questions & Answers
1

The problem is when I write my ray cast and the list of tags to check it becomes too long, 2 are ok, but when I add search, speak, attack etc, its way too long, because I have to also add the same hit.collider.gameObject.tag code.

if(Physics.Raycast(ray,out hit, reachDistance) && hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Pickup" || hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Touch" || hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Door") {
			if (hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Pickup")hand = 1;
			if (hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Touch") hand = 2;
			if (hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Door")  hand = 3;
		}
		else hand = 0;

I was thinking of creating a list of if statements but worried about fps loss on each update like;

handTags = new string[] {"Pickup","Touch","Door","Search","Open","Talk"};

Is there another way instead of the list? I would of use the switch case, but I believe it only uses numbers I tried as a test;

case : if(Physics.Raycast(ray,out hit, reachDistance) && hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "Pickup"):
hand = 1;
break;

I would of great great then I would had;

default:
hand = 0;
break;

This way when the ray did not touch any of these tags hand will return to 0 and remove the hand cymbol at the center of the screen.

Currently everything works, just looking for more efficient way, for when I add more tags.

2

First, I doubt that using if/else statements will be a problem until you hit at least 30+.

Second you can use switch/case with strings in c# so there shouldn’t be a problem with using tags

string str="hello";
switch(str) { 
    case "hello":
        Debug.Log(0);
        break;
    default:
        Debug.Log(1);
        break;
}

for more information on how to use switch/case statements I recommend a tutorial, i.e.
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/scripting/switch

Third, if you really want to use ints or enums for a switch you can always define your own class that derives from monobehaviour or component and stores an int/enum tag then use it instead of the string tag.