Unity - I Want to Display Variables in the Inspector! ~ About public and [SerializeField]~

Magical and Godlike Syntax for Displaying Variables in the Inspector

What? You want to make variables displayable in the Inspector? I completely understand—variables are incredibly useful, aren’t they? Let me introduce you to the syntax that makes such variables displayable in the Inspector.

Simply put, it’s public.
Let me explain with an example.

The Convenience of Adding public

Test.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class TestScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    public int Int;
    public float Float;
    public double Double;
    public bool Bool;
    public char Char;
    public string String;
    public List<int> list;
    public int[] Array = new int[] {1, 2};
}

Warning
When using List-type variables or array-type variables (as shown in the script above with int[]), always include:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

Without this, an error will occur and it will not execute correctly.

So, let’s say you write this process. You execute it—variables appear—and the result looks like this:

Although int[] isn’t displayed for some reason, the execution result will look like this. (The List is added in the Inspector.)

The secret lies, as mentioned earlier, in public. This script not only makes the variables accessible to other classes but also displays them in the Inspector—a truly excellent feature.

What’s Different Between public and [SerializeField]?

Among similar processes, there’s something called [SerializeField]. To use it, simply replace public with [SerializeField].

Here’s when [SerializeField] can be used:

• When you want to display information in the Inspector
• When you don’t want other scripts to inadvertently modify the values

This process is especially helpful in team projects with two or more people. For example:

A and B are working together on a project.
However, A and B are responsible for separate scripts.
A wants to display information in the Inspector and writes the following process:

public float Object_Hearth;

A, in fact, did not intend to make the variable Object_Hearth public, but B thought, “I can use Object_Hearth” and incorporated it into their script.
The project ultimately became problematic.

To avoid such unfortunate results, [SerializeField] becomes very useful.¹ Incidentally, A learned about this and corrected the process as follows:

[SerializeField] private float Object_Hearth;
//Using `private` clarifies that this object should not be accessed or used.

Summary

This time, we discussed public and [SerializeField].

• public is effective when you want to display variables in the Inspector and make them accessible to other scripts.
• [SerializeField] is effective when you want to display variables in the Inspector but do not want them to be accessible by other scripts.

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If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I’ll help as much as I can.
Translated with Bing AI

1. Reference site: 【初心者Unity】[SerializeField]ってなに？ | TECH PROjin ↩