Unity: best practices for 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' while accessing child GameObjects?
I'm building a feature where I've been researching this but I'm testing a new approach and I'm upgrading from an older version and I'm working on a Unity project where I dynamically spawn a prefab containing multiple child GameObjects..... However, I'm working with a `NullReferenceException` behavior when trying to access one of these child GameObjects. The behavior message reads: ``` NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object MyGameObject.Start () (at Assets/Scripts/MyGameObject.cs:15) ``` In my `Start` method, I have the following code: ```csharp void Start() { GameObject myChild = transform.Find("ChildObjectName").gameObject; myChild.GetComponent<ChildComponent>().DoSomething(); } ``` I've confirmed that the prefab has a child GameObject named "ChildObjectName" and that it was instantiated correctly. I also ensured that the script is attached to the root GameObject of the prefab. To debug, I added the following line before accessing the child: ```csharp Debug.Log(transform.childCount); ``` This outputs the expected number of children, and I've used `transform.GetChild(0)` to access other children successfully. I also tried adding a check to see if `myChild` is null: ```csharp if (myChild == null) { Debug.LogWarning("ChildObjectName is null!"); } ``` This warning does get triggered, indicating that `Find` is not locating the child correctly. I suspect this might have to do with the timing of when the child objects are instantiated relative to when `Start` is called. I've tried moving my logic into the `Awake` method as well, but the scenario continues. I've also attempted to use `GetComponentsInChildren<ChildComponent>()` as an alternative, but that didn’t help either. My Unity version is 2021.3.10f1. Any ideas on how I can reliably reference my child GameObject when working with prefabs? This issue appeared after updating to C# latest. This is my first time working with C# LTS. Thanks for any help you can provide! This is happening in both development and production on Debian. I'm using C# LTS in this project. I'm open to any suggestions.