Is there any way to create your own variable type?

Question

I think Array lacks of some basic functions for my project (intersections, get random element/index...). Is there anyway to create my own type of array? I think defining a new variable that inherits array methods and properties is a good option, instead of defining functions somewhere.

I tried extends Array, but syntax error

Answer 1

Not without modifying your engine with C++, which you're more than welcome to do:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/3.3/development/cpp/variant_class.html

You could write your functions and store them into an auto-load singleton which makes them globally available:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/step_by_step/singletons_autoload.html

Random indexes and elements are easy in-liners:
my_array[randi() % my_array.size()]
rand_index = randi() % my_array.size()

Comments

Nice question.

Most likely not without rebuilding the engine so smply create a script that extends reference and do all your custom manipulations there.

class_name SuperArray extends Reference

var contents = Array()

func init():
    pass

func append(variant) :
    contents.append(variant)

func that_normal_array_lacks():
    contents.erase(0)

And in any script you can call it like this

var array = SuperArray.new()
array.append(55)

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It's a good idea, but I want to preserve all methods of Array to avoid problems. So it's hard to make that.

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I'd thinked about modifying the engine, but I don't know C++, only Python, so I decided to ask. What I was doing before that question is that you said, use a singleton. Maybe in a future I try the first option. Thanks!

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Simpler than you think you can do a comparison with all of array's methods like I did with the append function above or call it directly like this SuperArray.contents.append(). So basically SuperArray is just a fancy class to manipulate a regular array

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Since I don't know C++, I will try your solution @Wakatta, but I still think that it would be better to modify Array, so that other people can benefit from it.

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Agreed. Maybe post a feature request as there are other classes with missing stuff but can't be extended either like Marshall