I've got this testprogram:
But it gives an error on the line with the Print-command.
My intension was to have a different amount of (space)stations in each sector of space.
The first index-number (1-15) of the array is used as the sectornumber, the second one is used as the stationnumber.
One given sector may contain all 10 stations, where other sectors may contain only 1.
Since it is unneccessary to create ALL type-instances (which consumes memory if you have lots of fields), I only create a new type-instance when there's supposed to be a station in that sector (I read all data from txt-files, which works perfectly).
For looping through all stations in a specific sector, I thought I could check if the index of the array is bigger than "0".
If it is, do some stuff with the data of that type-instance.
I thought this would work, as a pointer is (AFAIK) just a memory-address, which is an integer.
This way I could check if a specific arrayindex held a value bigger than "0".
If it was bigger, than it would point to a type-instance and the station exists.
In this example, in sector 2 exists only 3 stations (not 10):
But it doesn't work, as I get "Illegal type conversion error" on the IF-statement.
Now I bypassed this approach with some extra fields in another type (which existed also) and is used by another array, which hold the exact number of stations each sector contains.
In this last example, the program creates only the type-instances which are needed, to save some memory (unused type-instances are a total waste).
So if all sectors would have only 1 station in them, then only 1 secondary index (the second indexnumber) is a valid link to a type-instance.
Is there no other way of doing this?
I know I could loop through ALL Station-type-instances (which have a field which holds the name of the sector they are located in), but this would be too big/long.
As all routines in the game only need to know data about stuff in the sector where the player is located (cannot be in 2 or more sectors at once).
Type Station Field Name$ Field FileName$ Field PosX% Field PosY% Field PosZ% End Type Dim ArrayStations.Station(15, 10) For i = 1 To 15 For j = 1 To 10 ArrayStations(i, j) = New Station Next Next For i = 1 To 10 Print ArrayStations(1, i) Next WaitKey()
But it gives an error on the line with the Print-command.
My intension was to have a different amount of (space)stations in each sector of space.
The first index-number (1-15) of the array is used as the sectornumber, the second one is used as the stationnumber.
One given sector may contain all 10 stations, where other sectors may contain only 1.
Since it is unneccessary to create ALL type-instances (which consumes memory if you have lots of fields), I only create a new type-instance when there's supposed to be a station in that sector (I read all data from txt-files, which works perfectly).
For looping through all stations in a specific sector, I thought I could check if the index of the array is bigger than "0".
If it is, do some stuff with the data of that type-instance.
I thought this would work, as a pointer is (AFAIK) just a memory-address, which is an integer.
This way I could check if a specific arrayindex held a value bigger than "0".
If it was bigger, than it would point to a type-instance and the station exists.
In this example, in sector 2 exists only 3 stations (not 10):
For i = 1 To 10 If ArrayStations(2, i) <> 0 Then ; do stuff here with the data of this type-instance EndIf Next
But it doesn't work, as I get "Illegal type conversion error" on the IF-statement.
Now I bypassed this approach with some extra fields in another type (which existed also) and is used by another array, which hold the exact number of stations each sector contains.
Open in online IDEType Sector Field Name$ Field StationsInSector% End Type Type Station Field Name$ Field FileName$ Field PosX% Field PosY% Field PosZ% End Type Dim ArraySectors.Sector(15) Dim ArrayStations.Station(15, 10) ; Fill the sector-array with pointers to all sector-instances For i = 1 To 15 ArraySectors(i) = New Sector Next ; some other routines come here to load data from txt-files, which also state ; the number of stations in each sector ; Only create type-instances for the number of stations in each sector which are needed For i = 1 To 15 For j = 1 To ArraySectors(i)\StationsInSector% ArrayStations(i, j) = New Station Next Next ; Here are some routines which load data from the txt-file ; and put all values into the fields of the type-instances ; print the name of all stations in the galaxy For i = 1 To 15 For j = 1 To ArraySectors(i)\StationsInSector% Print ArrayStations(i, j)\Name$ Next Next WaitKey()
In this last example, the program creates only the type-instances which are needed, to save some memory (unused type-instances are a total waste).
So if all sectors would have only 1 station in them, then only 1 secondary index (the second indexnumber) is a valid link to a type-instance.
Is there no other way of doing this?
I know I could loop through ALL Station-type-instances (which have a field which holds the name of the sector they are located in), but this would be too big/long.
As all routines in the game only need to know data about stuff in the sector where the player is located (cannot be in 2 or more sectors at once).