MEL: Trick To Pass An Array Into A String Argument

I wrote a quick proc this morning that will let me pass an array (specified index) into a string argument since Maya won't let you do it any way by default in MEL.

Example...

// Looking For This Object's Shape Node
string $object = "myObject" ;
string $shapeArr[] = `listRelatives -shape $object` ;
string $shapeNode = $shapeArr[0] ;

// The above returns an array, which is annoying.  To me at least...

I'm aware you can use $shapeArr[0] as your shape node without redeclaring it into the second variable, but I've always felt it was sloppy to do it that way.

Here's a simple MEL procedure that makes it easier.

// **********************************************************
// Returns An Index From A String Array
global proc string jgArrToStr (string $array[], int $index) {

     // Get Index From Array
     string $obj = $array[$index] ;
 
     // Return
     return $obj ;
 
}

// Now you can do...

string $object = "myObject" ;
string $shape = jgArrToStr(`listRelatives -shape $object`, 0) ;

This will only work if you know the index you're looking for in the array, but a lot of times MEL returns string arrays when it doesn't need to and you know what it will be.