Classes issue with game

[jdunehew]

I am working on a basic game in order to learn more about development.

I can create an instance of a class and set properties and what not with it inside a function but my problem is I want to do this:

Create an object of a monster (monsterA) in function monsterhandler().

When user presses a button like maybe a 'fight' button, it modifies monsterA.Health, but I would like to make this modification inside the function that my IBAction calls (lets say fighHandler() ).

How can I create the monsterA, but still be able to modify it's properties in another function that did not create it?

Thank you in advance.

[davidlxk]

you could pass the monster into the function as a parameter/argument and modify the monster's properties in the function

[smasher]

In general, you use pointers to objects. You may create your monster object in game.startGame() or game.loadLevel() method, but you keep a pointer to it. Maybe you keep an array of pointers because you have many monsters.

To make changes to the monster you make a copy of the pointer and call methods on the pointer. This is different than making a copy of the object.

// fighthandler:
Monster* closeMonster = [game findCloseMonster];
if(closeMonster!=nil){
     [closeMonster subtractHealth:10];
}

The important thing here is that the pointer closeMonster is not a NEW monster object - it points to the same object returned by the flindCloseMonster method. If this doesn't make sense, read up on pointers.

EDIT: I just realized that you may not understand instance variables. Look up instance variables first - that's how you create a variable that you can use in two different methods.

[davidlxk]

you should definitely check this link out for beginning obj c
iPhone Tutorials | Ray Wenderlich