Retrieving text from a text file and inputting it to a Text component

Question

I had a suspicion I would come across this problem. I know how to write to the file and read from it, but the following snippet isn't allowing me to input it into a text component.

public class EventHandler : MonoBehaviour
{
    string _text;
    Text text;
    private void Awake() 
    {
        text = FindObjectOfType<Text>();
    }
    public string Read(string path)
    {
        _text = "";
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path);
        while (!reader.EndOfStream)
        {
            _text += reader.ReadLine();
        }
        reader.Close();
        return _text;
    }
    public void chapter_one()
    {
        text.text = Read("Assets/Chapters/chapter_one.txt");
    }
}

I'm sure you guys can explain why this isn't working. I already got the reference to the Text component as well.

Edit

No errors, file exists, its filled, color is white on black background, chapter_one is the file name and yes chapter_one is called, and I put Debug.Log right in the while loop and out_side of it and I received those logs. My only thoughts are that the string is not getting returned for god knows what reason, or the text component isn't appending the text.

Answer 1

Testing your solution, I find that the script works. You confirm that the text is being set from your StreamReader, but not transferring to your Text component. I can only find two reasons why this might be happening, and both generally fall under how you actually set up your initial Text component.

---

FindObjectOfType<t>() will only work if you can guarantee that you only have one instance of that t Type, or otherwise, do not care about what instance you will retrieve.

As per official documentation, FindObjectOfType<>() will return the first active object of that Type that has been loaded in to the scene. In my experience, you can not always reliably assume what instance will return, unless you only have a single instance of that Object in your scene.

That said, there is a much easier way to do this. If your script is attached to the same GameObject that holds your intended Object, use GetComponent<Component>, instead. That way, we look for the Component inside the specific GameObject. We can have a lot more control over referencing the right Object, in this way.

An easier method is to simply link the reference via the Inspector. You can do this by making your Text reference public, or by using either the [SerializeField] or [ShowInInspector] tags. The below script will look for a Text component local to the host GameObject, providing it has not already been linked via the Inspector.

public class EventHandler : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField]Text text;
    // ...

    private void Awake()
    {
        if(text == null)
        {
            text = (Text)GetComponent<Text>();
        }
    }
}

To be visually displayed, Text must be attached to a Canvas

Text will not display if it does not have a Canvas to display to. Canvas is a separate Component, and is used to display UI. The Text GameObject must be attached to the Canvas GameObject, via the Hierarchy. They can simply be attached to the same GameObject, if preferred.

Answer 2

After an extensive amount of research over the last two day, the help of all you wonderful people, and a little bit of ingenuity and sacrifice I managed to create a solution. As some reference, it turns out that chapter_one was not being called properly, however, even when it was being called properly it wasn't working. So, I ended up using File.ReadAllText(path) to get the text in my .txt. This is when I found out chapter_one wasn't being called correctly. I ended up doing a lot of migrating of various things away from my EventHandler and using multiple scripts to achieve what I was doing with just my EventHandler. The following code being placed on the Text Component in the scene achieved what I set out to do in the first place:

public class Chapter_one : MonoBehaviour
{
    string _text;

    private void Awake()
    {
        chapter_one();
    }
    public void Read(string path)
    {
        _text = File.ReadAllText(path);
    }
    public void chapter_one()
    {
        Read("Assets/Chapters/chapter_one.txt");
        gameObject.GetComponent<Text>().text = _text;
    }
}

Such simple things like this situation, where all that needed to be done was change methods or changing the style of retrieving a particular thing makes things so annoying. Especially when it takes days to figure out the most simplest of problems.