(Ruby) Deleting values from an array at a dynamic index

[Astfgl66]

Hi everyone!



I figured that despite the fact the system is evented the question was closer to programming than to eventing so i should post it in the scripting boards (i figured that in the normal support boards almost no one would know what an array is...). I apologize if i was wrong to do so and kindly ask you to point me in the right forum (or to tell me to go look at a solution at stackoverflow.com ).


Context: I'm creating an ATB battle system using events and it has states (ie poison, paralysis, atk buff, ...).
I display pictures close to the actor portrait to show what states he has (ie show picture "Poison Icon" if actor has state "Poison"). This again works.


The problem i have is to delete those pictures.


How the system works:
I define the states of an actor using a game variable as an array: V[state array]=[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]



Then i have another variable to tell my dysplaying event what icon it needs to draw: V[icon array]=[0,0,0,0] (it will only draw 4 icons no matter how many states)


Right now i add a state this way: 


     V[state array][state_id]=Duration For example if i want to apply the poison state to actor 1 for 3 turns i put V[95][0]=3


     Then i modify the icon array: I check for the first 0 and modify it to the number of the icon i want to display : V[icon array][first zero found]=Picture_id.


To delete a state, i check if the duration (V[sa][s_id]) is <= 0, if it is i remove the state via event commands and then starts the problem:



Right now i use V[ia].delete(Picture_id) and then V[ia].push(0)
This ensures that it deletes the value in the icon array that corresponds to the icon of the removed state. (Ie it will remove value 1 from the icon array if the state poison is removed.)


Then it adds 0 at the end of the icon array so that it remains the same size.


Right now it works, as expected, but i bet you can see where i'm going: Array.delete(x) will delete all "x" values it finds, so if several states share the same icon, i now have a problem.


Lets say V[ia]=[1,2,3,4]
it will display icons 1,2,3,4 as it should
then state 2 is removed, as i explained above i remove 2 from this array
V[ia] is now [1,3,4]
I then add 0
V[ia] is now [1,3,4,0]
My system will correctly display icons 1,3,4 in order and if i were to add state 2 again, it would display icons 1,3,4,2 in that order.


But, if V[ia]=[1,2,2,3] and i remove state 2 using delete(), V[ia] will now be equal to [1,3] and adding 0 to the end would make it [1,3,0]. So i lost the information that a second state using icon 2 was to be displayed.


How could i make it so that i remove only the icon that corresponds to the state that was removed, at the position it has to?



I thought about using V[ia].delete_at(index) but then i need to track the index at which the icon has to be removed for each state that was applied (and keep it updated when i remove a state...), and i don't know how i can do that.



Could anyone point me towards a solution? Maybe using arrays is not the best system and i could do it with a hash? (but then how? i'm entirely unfamiliar with hashes)
I could also simply add a different number for each state and then add the same icon but with a different picture name... But that would be admitting defeat and i don't like it


(Is it wrong to ask if i have a working (albeit ugly) solution?)


Thanks in advance, sorry for the long post.

 

[Wavelength]

I think you could use the index function to return the location of the state that is being deleted, and then use the delete_at function to remove the icon at that location.


See Ruby documentation for arrays at:


http://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.0.0/Array.html


While I think that's probably the best solution, one other thing you could do instead is remake the Icons array every time you change the States array.

 

[Astfgl66]

Thank you very much for the quick answer!


I found a solution. I had to use another set of arrays corresponding to the state arrays.


Like you said i used the index function so now when i set a state i also attribute the value of the position in the icon array in the new arrays. (If it doesn't find a zero, which means 4 states are already displayed, it sets it to an arbitrary number, i chose 31)


And when i remove a state, i now use delete_at() to the value at the position corresponding to the state being removed in the new arrays.


(It had all kind of weird interactions before i put 31 in and made the system basically ignore it because it would delete at postion 0 which was the default... Took me 1 hour to figure that...)


Anyway, the system is now working and i can use multiple of the same icons. Thank you very much!