Calling a generic function not working

I'm new to Unity and wanted to experiment with creating generic functions.

So for learning purpose, I created a static method which adds a component to a passed gameobject and returns the component itself. How usable the function is questionable, but the idea is to learn about generic functions.

Code (CSharp):

1.     public static T GetAddedComponent<T>(GameObject go, T component){
2.         go.AddComponent(component.GetType());
3.         return go.GetComponent<T>();
4.     }

This seems ok to me, but again I'm really not sure if this is the right way to do it. The problem I'm having is when calling the method:

Code (CSharp):

1. .   SpriteRenderer spriteRenderer = GetAddedComponent(enemy1, SpriteRenderer);

This is the error:

'SpriteRenderer' is a type, which is not valid in the given context 

How do I go about this?

 

You don't need to pass the generic type in as a parameter. That's what the <T> bit is for.

The way to write this generically is:

Code (CSharp):

1. public static T GetAddedComponent<T>(GameObject go) where T : Component {
2.         go.AddComponent<T>();
3.         return go.GetComponent<T>();
4.     }

However, there's not really any point to this function because

AddComponent<T>()

already returns the newly created component. (In fact this implementation has a bug because GetComponent might not return the same component you just added). So you could simplify your method to just:

Code (CSharp):

1.     public static T GetAddedComponent<T>(GameObject go) where T : Component {
2.         return go.AddComponent<T>();
3.     }

Or in fact just delete this function and use AddComponent<T>() directly.

 

Great, I understand what I was doing wrong. Thanks!

As I mentioned before - How usable the function is questionable, but the idea is to learn about generic functions.