Question

I am making a game which has a global (static) class called MedGameController. In my class I have two arrays of fifteen objects each which hold the logic for each players units. In the game the player’s go to a form where they see their already created units and have buttons to create more units. I don’t know how to check if current units exist though so I can’t even create a single unit. How do I check if the instance of my unit class exists in the array? The array of units have to have a scope which incompasses two maybe three forms so that is why I created them in a global class. Here is the global class:

static class MedGameController      
{
    static int ply1pts;
    static int ply2pts;
    Squad[] ply1squads = new Squad[15];
    Squad[] ply2squads = new Squad[15];

    public static int SetPly1Pts
    {
        get { return ply1pts; }
        set { ply1pts = value; }
    }

    public static int SetPly2Pts
    {
        get { return ply2pts; }
        set { ply2pts = value; }
    }

    public static int SquadSetUp
    {
        get { return squadcreation; }
        set { squadcreation = value; }
    }
    public static void Player1Squads
    {
        This is where I think i'm supposed to check if they exist then if it doesn't then I create the instance of the squad class
    }
}

}

Answer 1

Try this:

if (ply1Squads.Length == 0)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++)
    {
        ply1Squads[i] = new Squad();
    }
}

You’ve already declared ply1Squads to have 15 Squad objects, so it’s just a matter of initializing the objects at that point.

You can do the same thing for ply2Squads.

BTW, you need to declare ply1Squads and ply2Squads as static as well, as static classes can’t have instance members:

static Squad[] ply1Squads = new Squad[15];
static Squad[] ply2Squads = new Squad[15];

By default, these will be private variables, so you’ll want properties for these two arrays as well:

public static Squad[] Ply1Squads
{
    get
    {
        return ply1Squads;
    }
    set
    {
        ply1Squads = value;
    }
}

public static Squad[] Ply2Squads
{
    get
    {
        return ply2Squads;
    }
    set
    {
        ply2Squads = value;
    }
}

Additional Thoughts

If your design goal is to have MedGameController handle all the information related to the squads, I’d move away from what you appear to be doing – creating duplicate methods for each Squad array (i.e., Player1Squads). Instead, pass in a flag of some sort telling the controller which array to use, like this:

public void CreateSquads(int playerNum)
{

    select (playerNum)
    {
        case 1:
            for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++)
            {
                ply1Squads[i] = new Squad();
            }
            break;
        case 2:
            for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++)
            {
                ply2Squads[i] = new Squad();
            }
            break;
        default:
            // Handle wrong number here
            break;
    }
}

That’s a (very small) refactoring step. I would come up with a list of things you want the controller to do, and then figure out how to avoid a 1-1 mapping of every function to both arrays.

Hopefully this makes some sense and gives you a direction to go in. I have some more ideas tickling the back of my brain, but I can’t pull them out to the front yet. If I do, I’ll add more if you’re interested (what’s another edit or two after the first half-dozen, right? 🙂 ).