/doc/efun/call_other

SYNOPSIS

unknown call_other(object ob, string str, mixed arg, ...)
ob->fun(mixed arg, ...)

DESCRIPTION

Call a member function in another object with an argument. The return value is returned from the other object. The object can be given directly or via a string (i.e. its file_name). If it is given by a string and the object does not exist yet, it will be loaded.

ob->fun(args) and "ob_name"->fun(args) is equivalent to call_other(ob, "fun", args). Nowadays the ob_name string can also be a variable.

If ob does not define a publicly accessible function of the specified name, call_other() will return 0, which is indistinguishable from a function returning 0.

The return type of call_other() is 'any' be default. However, if your LPC code uses #pragma strict_types, the return type is 'unknown', and the result of call_other() must be casted to the appropriate type before you can use it for anything.

EXAMPLE

	string str;
	str = (string)this_player()->QueryProp(P_SHORT);

You have to do explicit type casting because of the unknown return type, if you have set #pragma strict_types.

	call_other("/users/luser/thing", "???", 0);

This looks a bit weird but it is used very often to just load the object by calling a not existing function like "???". (Thus there is no efun like load(string ob_name)).

SEE ALSO

function_exists

call_resolved

create

pragma

extern_call

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