Storing & using characters with their specs linked to it

Hey guys, didn't find a better description for the subject.

Maybe this is a easy question for Construct users who have experience with storing data

What I would like to do is the following:

I have 28 characters (names) and 12 possible 'specs' (words).

Each character has 4 of these possible 'specs'.

I would like to use these 2 data rows in both ways:

• getting every spec of a character
• getting every character sharing the same spec.

How can I do this in the most efficient way?

I presume I have to use an array? What are the events look like for both functions?

If someone can put me on the right track with some advice, I could find the rest.

Thanks in advance!

What are these characters and specs? If they are they just bits of text data, you can store them in an array or a dictionary.

With dictionary you can have the character as key name and put all specs into a comma separated string.

So you'll have:

Keyname="Character1", data="spec1,spec2,spec3,spec4"

Use "For each key" loop and expressions like find() and tokenat() to search for/parse specs.

Or you can make a 2D array, X axis will store character name, Y1-Y4 will store specs.

Use array events like "For each element" and "Compare current value"/"Compare at XY" to search for a character/spec.

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In case these characters and specs are actual objects (like sprites), you can define an instance variable on the Spec sprite - "CharacterUID". This will allow to link characters with specs.

To pick specs for a character:

Spec compare instance variable -> CharacterUID=Character.UID

To pick character for a spec:

Character pick by Unique ID -> Spec.CharacterUID

Thank you so much for the 2 tips!

I was trying out the way with the array but using dicitionary seems more logic for this one!

(I didn't know we could use CSV in it)

Both arrays and dictionaries have their pros and cons. What's to choose depends on your data and how are you going to use it.

There's actually a plugin that can help parsing CSV files or even convert them to arrays:

Hey I've tried a lot but I can't seem to find a way to write a event using the array for this function:

The Array is orderd as following:

X = Name1, Name2, Name3

Y1= Spec1, Spec2, Spec 3

Y2 = Spec 4, Spec5, Spec6

Function:

Textobject1 chooses randomly one of the three name. (that's no problem afcourse)

In 2 instances of the same textobject2 I want to display the specs that are listed under the name that has been chosen and displayed in the first textobject1 (using a small loop for textobject2)

If there is a golden event tip for this one, it would save a headache!

First, your array structure should be like this:

X0,Y0 =Name1 (this element can also be referred as X0)

X0,Y1 = Spec1

X0,Y2 = Spec2

X0,Y3 = Spec3

X1,Y0 =Name2 (this element can also be referred as X1)

X1,Y1 = Spec4

X1,Y2 = Spec5

X1,Y3 = Spec6

To pick random name use this code:

variable r=int(random(array.width))

Text1 set text to "Name: " & array.at(r)

To loop through all specs for this name:

For y=0 to (array.height-1) -> Text2 append text array.at(r, loopindex) & " "

It worked!! wauw!

Thank you so much Stan.

In a couple of months, we're maybe going to need a man like you for bigger questions.

I've seen your post about working with you as a freelancer, since we've some money for a freelancer for our project, I'll keep in touch!

greetz and thank you

Lennert