list swap and insert

ID:2381354
 
Jul 4 2018, 12:13 pm
(See the best response by Kaiochao.)
Code:


Problem description:
I never really did use these, or have any reason to until now. Usually the order of things in a list really didn't seem to matter much. I don't really get how to use them, it looks like they have to be used with an actual number of that object's place in the list.

Is there a quick, easy way of figuring out what an objects place in the list is, or a mob's for that matter? It seems to me like these were not even meant to be used with a list containing mobs, but it would be nice to be able to.

What I want to do is put a mob that is not in the list at a certain position in the list, and remove the one currently at that position from the list. Sometimes it would be a group of mobs, rather than one single mob, that would be replacing that mob in the list.

Can somebody give a quick example please of how to do this? Like for example if the list is of objects that are actual mobs used in the world, and I want to replace the 2nd mob in the list with 3 other mobs that will each be placed before what is the 3rd mob in the list. I hope I said that right. lol

Jul 4 2018, 1:52 pm
Best response
What I want to do is put a mob that is not in the list at a certain position in the list, and remove the one currently at that position from the list.
You can find the old mob's index with Find():
var old_mob_index = your_list.Find(old_mob)

To replace a single mob in the list, you can do this:
your_list[old_mob_index] = new_mob

Or, to remove it and then add a bunch of mobs starting from the old mob's index, you can use Insert():
your_list -= old_mob
// or
your_list.Cut(old_mob_index, old_mob_index + 1)

// then
your_list.Insert(old_mob_index, list_of_mobs)
Jul 4 2018, 3:00 pm
Thanks Kaiochao. There is something else about lists I forgot to mention. Is there an easy way to see if a variable is a list? Like ismob, only for lists?
Jul 4 2018, 3:04 pm
In response to LawnMower
Yep. You should already be declaring list-typed variables with the list type, so you should know that /list is a type. Since it's a type, you can use istype():
istype(whatever, /list)
Jul 5 2018, 7:07 am
Thanks again for helping me, I did run into a bit of a problem though, in a way its a bit of a problem. I might not be doing it right but insert seems to not be able to insert ascioated values. Is that true, or am I just using it wrong?
Jul 5 2018, 5:05 pm
Set up the association on the next line.
Jul 5 2018, 5:16 pm
In response to LawnMower
Oh, right. Associated values aren't kept when using Insert().

As MisterPerson said, you can remake the associations in the new list like so:
your_list.Insert(old_mob_index, list_of_mobs)

for(var/mob in list_of_mobs)
  your_list[mob] = list_of_mobs[mob]