Change find_node to find_nodes and Add an type parameter.

[Diddykonga]

Changed find_node to find_nodes which now returns an TypedArray<Node>, and Added an type parameter to match against specific node types, which supports inheritance. find_nodes can be used with just mask or just type or both.

type: Can be any native, class_name, or resource_path type, similarly to the extends keyword. (supports inheritance)

3.x PR: #56085
Closes: godotengine/godot-proposals#3661
Example Project: FindNodesTest.zip

[me2beats]

Should it be named get_children_of_class() instead?

[nathanfranke]

Should it be named get_children_of_class() instead?

type makes more sense in my opinion.

[Diddykonga]

All suggested changes made, and rebased to current Master.

[KoBeWi]

Still needs a review from core team probably.

[lawnjelly]

Still needs a review from core team probably.

Yes added PR meeting label as I think it needs broader review before going further, I think things like the naming and parameters are things that the reviewers like to bikeshed on and come to agreement.

On the naming at least I would be considering something like "find_nodes_of_type" rather than "get_children_of_type".

The difference between get and find seems already set by precedent in the get_node() and find_node() functions ("get" looking for a specific thing known in advance, and "find" implying a check on many nodes and potentially being more expensive .. this is often used as a convention for naming, with "get" used for accessors and "find" and "calculate" used for more expensive operations).

And children could be confusing if you are using the function recursively, which may end up being a common use case.

[akien-mga]

We discussed this in a PR review meeting, the added feature seems fine, but we were wondering if it wouldn't be worth refactoring this API to unify the existing find_node and the new functionality to restrict only to a specific type (i.e. make it find_nodes that can take an optional type parameter).

[Zireael07]

@akien-mga: Maybe as another PR? This is a feature that would be welcome sooner rather than later

[akien-mga]

@akien-mga: Maybe as another PR? This is a feature that would be welcome sooner rather than later

Godot 4.0 is in alpha, and the further changes required mean breaking compatibility. There's no point merging a feature now in a pre-release branch to break compatibility right after.

[Zireael07]

Ah, good point.

[Diddykonga]

Suggested changes from the PR Review Meeting have been implemented. I will wait for confirmation that the changes are correct/desired, before pushing the same changes to the 3.x PR.

[akien-mga]

Thanks! And congrats for your first merged Godot contribution 🎉

[codecat]

I'm seeing the recursive option not working as intended on 4.0.alpha3. For example, find_nodes("*") only returns the top child nodes for me, not any subsequent child nodes. Similarly, searching for a class with either find_nodes("*", "MyClass") or find_nodes("", "MyClass") returns nothing, while there definitely are nodes of that type (nested within the child nodes).

Should I open a new issue for this?

[bitbotzgames]

Why isn't there also a find_parents function?

[nathanfranke]

Why isn't there also a find_parents function?

You can benefit from type hints with your own function, although I recognize the use case.

func get_map(n: Node = self) -> Map:
    if n == null:
        return null
    if n is Map:
        return n
    return get_map(n.get_parent())

Any other use cases that really shine?