What am I doing wrong? (problem with classes)

Example:

Class Animal : MonoBehaviour{
public void Talk(){
Debug.Log("Animal.Talk");
}
}

Class Dog : Animal{
public new void Talk(){
Debug.Log("BARK");
}
}

Class Cat : Animal{
public new void Talk(){
Debug.Log("MEOW");
}
}

Class Test: MonoBehaviour {
protected Animal animal;
public void TestTalk(){
animal.talk();
}
public void SetAnimal(Animal _animal){
animal = _animal;
}
}


So i set my animal in class Test with an object i created as a Dog.:

Dog dog = new Dog();
Test.SetAnimal (dog);

I call TestTalk. I expected the result to be a log of BARK. Instead i get Animal.Talk.

The goal was to have a dictionary of animals, and calling the Talk function on each, and have different results depending on what kind of animals they are.

What am I doing wrong?

 

Having the same function name "Talk" doesn't magically link together the function calls between base and derived types- in order for that to happen, you need to define Talk in the Animal class as virtual or abstract- virtual meaning it's possible for derived types to override that function, and abstract meaning derived types must override that function. You then have to actually override this function in derived types in order for the behaviour to be any different.

In other words, when a Dog is referenced as an Animal, you lose access to all fields, properties, and methods specific to Dogs until if/when you cast that object back into a Dog, with the notable exception of properties and methods that are virtual/abstract and then overridden.

Also, please use code tags when posting code here, as shown in the sticky thread at the top of every forum. It's very important.

 

Thank you! This fixed it. I will use code tags next time, wasn't aware of it sorry