Inventory Array Help

flame-cube

Due to certain difficulties, the array for my inventory cannot be = null, but has 9 values inside, all called "EMPTY SLOT" If I was to add an item to the inventory, how could I make it so that it replaces the first value in the array that is ="EMPTY SLOT"? Another thing I need help with - is it possible to do something like add a description for each item when I add one in, like writing

inventory[0].desc = "This is an item called test" METHOD FOR INSERTING ITEM so that inventory[0] would be "test" RichTextLabel.text = inventory[0].desc

Does something like this exist?

fire7side

It sounds like you want an array of class objects.

bunnydefluff

Hi, I am very new and do not have much experience in anything, but I have a feeling that you could use dictionaries for this, sorry if I am wrong. And for safe measure, try to use something like string() when you want to display something as text string, again I am not confident enough but I would suggest learning to use string(): RichTextLabel.text = string(inventory[0].desc) #just an example, please refer to proper tutorials Hope this helps

flame-cube

@fire7side Thanks, would you be able to help with the first question as well?

Erich_L

inventory[0] will access the first item in your inventory array. As @fire7side mentioned it seems like you're looking to define your own class. It's a good idea to define a class when you know you're going to need to organize quite a few important variables (such as a description) together. So google that when you're ready, otherwise as @bunnydefluff said, you could get the job done by filling your array with dictionaries, which will be a little messier but potentially faster and (if you don't need to add a lot besides a description) easier.

Ohhh I think there's a chance what you mean is- you want the new object to be in spot [0] and then maybe push all the other inventory items back in the array.

var inventory := []

func addToInventory(item : Item):
	if inventory.size() < 9:
		inventory.push_front(item)
	else:
		print("inventory full ya dork!")

In that case, this should work.

fire7side

I wouldn't get stuck with a dictionary for inventory because the chances are high you will want more than a description. For instance, maybe you will want a certain number, or it can combine with something else, or you want a sprite for it, or all kinds of things. If you are sure it's only two items you will ever need, then a dictionary would work.

flame-cube

@Erich_L Wouldn't that only work if the inventory works based on adding items to an array? For my inventory, it is ["EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT"] and I needed a way to replace the first EMPTY SLOT with ITEM automatically in a function so that I wouldn't need to spam

    if inventory[0] == "EMPTY SLOT":
    	inventory[0] = item
    elif inventory[1] == "EMPTY SLOT":
    	inventory[1] = item

and so on

Megalomaniak

IIRC if you push something into an array, whether front or back, you are pushing the whole array around.

xyz

Firstly, description should be a property of an item, not of an inventory slot. As for inventory, simply make an array of fixed size populated with null references (signifying no item, i.e. empty slot) and a function that will insert a new item into first available slot. Items can be either dictionaries if you only needa couple of simple properties or objects (including nodes).

func make_inventory(size=10):
	var inventory = []
	for i in size:
		inventory.push_back(null)
	return inventory

func put_item_into_inventory(inventory, item):
	for slot_index in inventory.size():
		if inventory[slot_index] != null:
			continue
		else:
			inventory[slot_index] = item
			break

func print_inventory(inventory):
	print("INVENTORY:")
	for item in inventory:
		if item:
			print(item)
		else:
			print("EMPTY SLOT")
			
var my_inventory
func _ready():
	my_inventory = make_inventory()
	print_inventory(my_inventory)
	put_item_into_inventory(my_inventory, {"name": "sword", "description": "steel"} )
	put_item_into_inventory(my_inventory, {"name": "potion", "description": "health"} )
	print_inventory(my_inventory)

Erich_L

I think I see what you're going for @"Flame Cube". In this case there's no actual reason to fill your array with the string "EMPTY SPOT". Here's a function to get an item that would get the behavior I think you want:

var inventory = []

func getItemByName(name : String):
	var index =  inventory.find(name, 0) 
	if index == -1:
		return "EMPTY SLOT"
	else:
		return inventory[index ]

Or you could keep things the way to have them and add an item this way:

var inventory = ["EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT"]

func setInventoryItem(item : Item, index : int):
	if index < 9:
		inventory[index] = item

Erich_L

That second 5 lines of code in my last post is what I'm pretty sure you want which will fix your most immediate problem, but it makes too much of your code very rigid and hard to edit later. What happens when you want a 10th inventory item? What happens when you decide the player can only hold one thing or should drop all those things? Doing things this way, all of your functions are going to have to change each time you change that inventory size number.

flame-cube

@Erich_L The reason for having it filled with "EMPTY SLOT" was due to an error where I needed to check for the existence of a slot the does not exist (9 slots max, but at the time the array started empty), and I needed to check if any slot from slot [0] to slot [8] was = null. For some reason, this gave me an error because I was checking if inventory[slot] = null, but it told me that inventory[slot] did not exist, so I could do any logic with it!

@Erich_L said: Or you could keep things the way to have them and add an item this way:

var inventory = ["EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT"]

func setInventoryItem(item : Item, index : int):
	if index < 9:
		inventory[index] = item

From what you said I think it might work but I have no idea what the code does... As far as I can tell from it, it does not make sure it is overwriting "EMPTY SLOT", how would that work?

Also for descriptions do I have to make a node/script for each item, and then put an instance of it in the array of something? I don't really understand what @xyz meant...

xyz

@"Flame Cube" Are you familiar with using a for loop to iterate through all the elements in an array?

Erich_L

I hate to be the one to say it @"Flame Cube" but I think it's pretty clear you need to go over programming basics or else instead of us helping with a specific problem (which I'm confident we can) we're going to be stuck explaining the basics which a simple tutorial on youtube will likely be much better at. That being said and hopefully not sounding rude, the code I gave:

    var inventory = ["EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT", "EMPTY SLOT"]
    func setInventoryItem(item : Item, index : int):
      if index < 9:
          inventory[index] = item

This would put an item in the array at a specific index in the array. For example you could call

setInventoryItem(helmet, 0)

and it would put the helmet at the first spot in the array.

flame-cube

@Erich_L I get what you mean, I don't really know all of the (commands?) that you can use with Godot. I should probably look for more of them on youtube or something

Erich_L

Commands probably is the wrong word, I'd say you should review programming basics, the logic of which is similar to all languages. Must knows: memory types (string, int, array, dict, ect), all the loops (for, while..ect), function definition and return types and others I am forgetting. The "commands" or functions different classes have in godot aren't too hard to find. If you write

var inventory : Array = []

you can control+click on the Array keyword and it will bring you to the documentation of the array class which shows you all the functions that are built into it.