Type Trouble

I've been using the Blitz Plus User guide to assist me with my
programming develope me. I'm making a bunch of stupid little
tests and I see that a type section has been neglected in the manual. My question is how do you define a type, by what you called it or _type etc.?

if you wanted to make a type called "baddie":

type baddie
; this declares the type

field xpos#
field ypos#
field speed%
; these are the attributes that each instance of the type will have

end type

and then to make a few new instances of the type you can say:

for i = 1 to 10
anythingyoulike.baddie = new baddie
anythingyoulike\xpos = rnd(1,200)
anythingyoulike\ypos = rnd(0.1,10.333)
anythingyoulike\speed = rnd(1,55)
next

this makes a list of 10 instances of the type baddie, with random values for each attribute.


so now youve made a list of types. to cycle through each of them:

for john.baddie = each baddie

john\ypos = john\ypos+10
; moves each instance down 10 pixels

next

to access the first one of the list:

fred.baddie = first baddie

to access the last one in the list:

beatrice.baddie = last baddie

to access the third one in the list

jemima.baddie = first baddie
jemima.baddie = next baddie
jemima.baddie = next baddie

neil

Thanks alot, this will help me out with a A.I Test I'm making.

If you don't want or can't always fetch the value from the type by searching it from beginning to the end, you can do this:

; Create the type
Const Entries% = 1000
Type array
	Field name$, value#, age%
End Type

; Create type content
Dim this.array(Entries%)
For i% = 1 To Entries%
	this(i) = New array
		this(i)\name$ = "Andres #" + i%
		this(i)\value# = Rnd(0, 1)
		this(i)\age% = Rand(10, 20)
Next

; Access the type
For i% = 1 To Entries%
	Print this(i)\name$ + " is " + this(i)\age% + " years young and hi's value is: " + this(i)\value#
Next
WaitKey

I've used it for servers so i don't need to SEARCH for a connection's entry, i just ise it's id.

cool, i didnt know you were allowed to do that. i guess we both learned something here!


neil

Interesting concept, thanks for the help guys- but when you
define a type lets say you just wanted to change x and y values... but theirs another Field value in the type. How would you do that?

sorry, i dont understand what youre getting at...

neil

For example:
Type EnemyShip
Field x,y
Field health,bullets
End Type
If I wanted to move the enemy to a different area without
changing the health and bullet values what would I do?
Would I just say.EnemyShipx etc.?

For this.EnemyShip = each EnemyShip
    If this\id% = IDToMove% Then ; For example if you want to move a specific EnemyShip
        this\x% = rand(0, 100)
        this\y% = rand(0, 100)
    EndIf
Next

Yes you can change the x and y values without changing the health,shield,etc..

Would what I did in my last post work to change just those
values?

Yes, you can choose what ever field you change in a type. Though you can use them if you need:

The more health you got, the faster you'll move:

this\x% = this\x% + this\health%

After declaring your type you have to initialize it to use it. Have a look at this.

type ship

field x,y
field health,armor,speed

end type

That will declare your type. Now you must initialize it like this:

enemy.ship = new ship

enemy\x = 400
enemy\y = 300
enemy\health = 100
enemy\armor = 10
enemy\speed = 5

Your ship type is now set with starting values. Now if you wanted to move it up the screen, you would do that like this:

enemy\y = enemy\y - enemy\speed

That would move the enemy ship up the screen 5 pixels per frame. If you wanted to move it to the left, you could do that like this:

enemy\x = enemy\x - enemy\speed

I hope this helps. Happy coding!

Thanks, for the assistance I think I'll be fine now.

Sorry, but does anyone know how you assign an image to a type?

Add another field to store the image's handle, then (after using New) use that field with LoadImage or CopyImage.

this.array = new array
    this\image1% = loadimage("")
    this\image2% = createimage()
    this\sound% = loadsound("")

Thank you, this will help me with my A.I engine I'm developing-PurpleGeist(); yes I know peculiar name
but its coming soon... when I'm done with it I'll be posting it
on the Blitz Showcase.