How do I get a collection of components instead of a collection of GameObjects?

I have an EnemyManager script that has a collection of Enemy objects

Code (CSharp):

1. internal GameObject[] enemies;
2. enemies = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Enemy");

Throughout my code I am iterating the collection like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. Enemy enemyScript;
2. foreach (GameObject enemy in enemies)
3.     {
4.     enemyScript = enemy.GetComponent<Enemy>();
5.     enemyScript.DoSomething();
6.     }

How can I make enemies[] a collection of EnemyScripts?
When I try this:

Code (CSharp):

1. internal Enemy[] enemies;
2. enemies = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Enemy").GetComponent<Enemy>();

I get an error that System.Array does not have a definition for GetComponent

Any help is greatly appreciated, Google has not been very helpful

 

You must first get the gameobjects
then make another array for the components

Alternatively, when you create your enemies (via instantiate) get the components then and add them to a list, to avoid searching for them later

 

You can cache the enemies and their Enemy component and iterate it, something like this:

Code (csharp):

1. private GameObject[] objects;
2. private Enemy[] enemies;
3.  
4. void Start()
5. {
6.    objects = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Enemy");
7.  
8.   enemies = new Enemy[objects.Length];
9.  
10.    for(int i = 0; i < objects.Length; i++)
11.    {
12.      enemies[i] = objects[i].GetComponent<Enemy>();
13.    }
14. }
15.  
16. void SomeFunc()
17. {
18.    for(int i = 0; i < enemies.Length; i++)
19.    {
20.      enemies[i].DoSomething();
21.    }
22. }

Remember that arrays are fixed size, so if you plan on enemies dying or the amount of enemies changing anytime during gameplay you might want to use a list instead. Using a list would also clean the code up a bit.

 

I'll look at that. Its a turn based game so I was building a new collection each turn for just that reason. At the time I did not know I could iterate a List<> by index (Newb) and I tend to prefer arrays because they are more light weight and because I learned to program in the 80's