Trying to call method of object indexed in ArrayList in C#

Question

I'm new to C# and I'm writing a program where I have an ArrayList (unitArray) of Unit objects and am trying to call a non-static method on the object referenced in the ArrayList. I try to access the specific object and call it's method but it doesn't work. I'd be grateful for help resolving this issue.

Unit.unitArray[selectedUnit].DisplayUnitAttributes()

I get the following exception:

'object' does not contain a definition for 'DisplayUnitAttributes' and no extension method 'DisplayUnitAttributes' accepting a first argument of type 'object' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) 

Answer 1

you need to cast the object as its type. In place of MyClass below, substitute your actual class type in.

(Unit.unitArray[selectedUnit] as MyClass).DisplayUnitAttributes()

Answer 2

The type of elements extracted from an ArrayList are System.Object which is the base class of all objects in C#.

You have to cast element to a derived type to access the methods or better yet use a System.Generic.List<T> where T is the type of the elements in the list.