Arrays
Arrays
Arrays are extremely helpful when it comes to doing the same thing to several different objects, such as moving a few platforms by a certain amount in a map, or storing lots of related variables.
To create an array we simply type...
arrayName = [];
Now, to add an object/variable to this array, we can simply use:
array(array.size) = "a string variable";
Whenever you see array.size, the .size does not mean it's dimensions, but the amount of items in the array. So if an array contains 1 piece of data, the array.size is 1. To retrieve an items from an array, you can use array[0] for the first object/var stored in it, and then array[1] and so on for successive items.
Going back to the example above, we could retrieve the data by using array[0]. The first item in an array is listed as 0, the second as 1, and so on. This means that by using array(array.size) = "blah";, we can add new items to it because of the offset of 1.
A common use for an array is to call a function on all of the players in the game. This can be done by using an array with a FOR loop.
To start with we must get our array of players, and instead of using the above method of defining an array and adding custom data, we can use a builtin function.
players = getEntArray("player", "classname");
So, our array has been defined as "players", or more accurately, "players[]".
Inside "players[]" is every player on the server, and now all we need to do is use the array to thread a function to each player. So, here we have a for loop to do such a thing:
for(i = 0; i < players.size; i++)
{
players[i] thread function();
}
That's our loop to go through every player and call function(); on them.
Remember, 'i' is a variable not a letter, so 'i' is substitued with the number of the loop. In the first loop, 'i' equals 0, so:
players[0] thread function();
is executed.
Arrays are a complicated part of scripting, but once you have them understood, they are one of the most useful things in the game.
