Verbose static typing? ($MyNode as Type).property = value

UnknownUser

Hi forum! I'm brand new at Godot, and I really like what I've seen so far in various tutorials. So now it's time to move onto my own projects. Day one … and I already have some very basic questions:

I think I'll try to keep my code as type safe as possible, so the whole static typing thing is quite clear. It's nice to have the green safe line number indicator in the editor. Sometimes, however, the code seems to become a bit verbose to achieve that? For example just to let the editor know that $Shape is a Polygon2D I need to write: ( $Shape as Polygon2D ).color = Color( randf(), randf(), randf() ) It's fine if that's the only way, I'm just wondering if I overlooked something.

bitshift-r

This is more verbose but it may help keep your line length in check:

var shape: Polygon2D = $Shape
shape.color = Color( randf(), randf(), randf() )

UnknownUser

Ah yes, that looks like a good option, especially when I use shape repeatedly. Thank you!

Azedaxen

You can also do

var shape := $Shape

And Godot will infer shape's type from the type of node. However, this may be less readable if you don't know what type of node Shape is, so the other method is good for preserving readability and works the same.

UnknownUser

Thanks Azedaxen. It's great that Godot can infer the type. It just makes me wonder why it can't infer the type with $Shape.property = value.

UnknownUser

I just tested var shape := $Shape, it looks like Godot can't infer the type. The explicit var shape: Polygon2D = $Shape works, it just keeps that same line not type safe for some reason, but any line that then uses shape is evaluated as type safe.

UnknownUser

var shape := ( $Trunk as Polygon2D )

gets me an "all green" for type safe lines, so maybe that's the way to go, especially if I use shape multiple times.