Unity - Dealing with multiple arrays and understanding loops

Question

So I'm having a hard time understanding how multiple arrays and loops work. For example, in a game you have the trading functionalities and you create a method like this:

public void TradeItems(string[] giveItemKey, int[] giveAmount, string[] takeItemKey, int[] takeAmount)
{

}

You can call for the method to trade fewer items for more or vice versa. Example, you give 3 Double daggers & 4 Boots for 2 Armor.

TradeItems(new string[] { "Double Dagger", "Boots" }, new int[] { 3,4}, new string[] {"Armor" }, new int[] {2 });

So based on that method, how would you go about it? Would it be something like this?

public void TradeItems(string[] giveItemKey, int[] giveAmount, string[] takeItemKey, int[] takeAmount)
{
  if (HasItemsToTrade())
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < giveItemKey.Length; i++)
        {
            RemoveItems(giveItemKey[i], giveAmount[i]);
        }
        for (int i = 0; i < takeItemKey.Length; i++)
        {
            AddItems(takeItemKey[i], takeAmount[i]);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Debug.Log("You don't have required items to trade");
    }

}

Also note that the giveItemKey array and takeItemKey array could have, equal or unequal lengths etc.

I appreciate any help and knowledge i can get about these.

Are you finding a better solution for void TradeItems() function? — Li-Jyu Gao
– Li-Jyu Gao, Commented Jul 10, 2020 at 5:27

derHugo · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-10 05:37:30Z

1

In general I would rather use a Dictionary instead of two separate collections of items that eventually match in sizes..

public void TradeItems(Dictionary<string, int> give, Dictionary<string int> take)
{
    if (HasItemsToTrade(give))
    {
        foreach(var givePair in give) 
        {
            RemoveItems(givePair.Key, givePair.Value);
        }

        foreach(var takePair in take)
        {
            AddItems(takePair.Key, takePair.Value);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Debug.Log("You don't have required items to trade");
    }
}

So your HasItmesToTrade would probably iterate over the entries in give and check if they are in your inventory like e.g.

private bool HasItemsToTrade(Dictionary<string, int> give)
{
    foreach(var kvp in give)
    {
        if(!inventory.ContainsKey(kvp.Key)) return false;

        if(inventory[kvp.Key] < kvp.Value) return false;
    }

    return true;
}

So you would rather call it like

TradeItems(new Dictionary<string, int> { {"Double Dagger", 3}, {"Boots", 4} }, new Dictionary<string, int>{ {"Armor", 2 } });

answered Jul 10, 2020 at 5:37

derHugo

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1 Comment

Pikachu Over a year ago

Much cleaner and simpler code for sure. gonna see if it works well with my scriptableobject items

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