Question dictionary and pointers

As a beginner with unity and c#, hoping someone can give me some "pointers" (pardon the pun)... I'm trying to set up a dictionary of "pointers" to a series of functions.
So I have something like this:
Dictionary<string,Action> testpointers = new Dictionary<string, Action>()
{
{"test1", () => Routine_1() },
{"test2", () => Routine_2() }
};

void Routine_1{}
void Routine_2{}

I want to use the values, the pointers, in things like AddListener etc so I can change things dynamically using my dictionary. How do I get the function/method "label" as an "pointer". If I do something like this
var showme = testpointers["test1"] all I get in debug.log is "System.Action".

Thanks

 

You can do this but the syntax to "get a pointer" to a function omits the ()

You don't need to re-wrap it in a delegate, but you're welcome to.

The () after the function is the "invoke this function"

To invoke showme, you would do:

Code (csharp):

1. showme();

or if you like living dangerously:

Code (csharp):

1. testpointers["test1"]();

I always advocate pulling it out and testing it for nullness however.

 

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. Dictionary<string,System.Action> testpointers =
3.     new Dictionary<string, System.Action>()
4. {
5.     {"test1", Routine_1 },
6.     {"test2", Routine_2 }
7. };
8.  
9. static void Routine_1() { print("one"); }
10. static void Routine_2() { print("two"); }
11.  

Edit: or if you need to pass an argument:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. Dictionary<string,System.Action<object>> testpointers =
3.     new Dictionary<string, System.Action<object>>()
4. {
5.     {"test1", Routine_1 },
6.     {"test2", Routine_2 }
7. };
8. static void Routine_1(object o) { print($"one {o}"); }
9. static void Routine_2(object o) { print($"two {o}"); }

 

Thanks you both for this. Still having a bit of a fix though.
I'm doing this:

1. Dictionary<string,System.Action> testpointers =
2. new Dictionary<string, System.Action>()
3. {
4. {"test1", Routine_1 },
5. {"test2", Routine_2 }
6. };
   
   as in the example above.
   Then I try to use the "pointer"/value in the way I would in Python or whatever by simply grabbing it with the key and dumping it in.
   
   But ....AddListener(testpointers["test1"]) doesn't work. I get "cannot convert from system.action to unityengine.events.unityaction. What I'm trying to do is set up an array of delegates (I think that's what c# calls them, as Kurt in post above points out; I just call them pointers) that I can pick out and use (as in example with AddListener) by using the keys as references.

I must be missing a step somewhere.

 

Oh yeah, you just gotta wrap it with delegate...

Syntax would look like:

Code (csharp):

1. AddListener( delegate { testpointers["test1"](); } );

But again, if you think the retrieve might fail, obviously hook up a try/catch or a .ContainsKey() check.

 

Thank you so much. You're a star. This is finally working and now I can get on. Thank you.

 

@halley


Thanks for helping me resolve this as well.