alice-teacher (object)'s variable named (variableName) of type (valueClass) function help

[Findley, Scott]

Question from a student regarding: (object)'s variable named (variableName) of type (valueClass) function help:

I'm trying to have Alice check the value of a variable in a list of objects and if that test returns false, I want to set that variable to a random number. However, alice's built in function for this, (object) 's variable named (variableName) of type (valueClass), only seems to be able to drop if the stars align (ie, I have no idea why it sometimes accepts it but mostly won't let me drop it in my code). Also I have only been successful in getting this to work when I'm checking a value in an if statement, however I also want to set the variable to a number. Here is kind of what I want my code to look like:

for all world.spawnPoints one item_from_spawnPoints at a time
 if ((item_from_spawnPoints's variable named timeBuffer of type Number) <=0) //this I managed to do but it was very difficult to to get the function in there and I'm not sure how I did it.
  //do stuff
  item_from_spawnPoints's variable named timeBuffer of type Number set value to world.random number //I have no idea how to do this line...
 else
  //do other stuff

I realize I could get around this by using multiple class level methods and having them change their own local variable, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose of a list (plus, I don't want to make 10+ methods when I could just use one).
I'd appreciate any solutions you guys have.


Mr. Scott Findley
sfindley at sd43.bc.ca<https://webmail.sd43.bc.ca/owa/redir.aspx?C=0a9bf7b1630b4554891428589166e563&URL=mailto%3asfindley%40sd43.bc.ca>
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