Hashtable Save & Load Question

[NightWavez]

I recently started playing around in the wc3 editor again, and I'm clearly missing something about how hashtables work in wc3:

    call DisplayTextToForce( GetPlayersAll(), "Hero Spawn! hero:"+GetUnitName(hero))
 
    call SaveUnitHandle( udg_heroTable, GetHandleId(switch), 0, hero)
    set hero2 = LoadUnitHandle(udg_heroTable, GetHandleId(switch), 0)

    call DisplayTextToForce( GetPlayersAll(), "Hero Spawn! hero:"+GetUnitName(hero2) )

When this is run in game the first text displayed is "Hero Spawn! hero:somename" while the second is "Hero Spawn! hero:". Why does the second DisplayText not display the same thing as the first? It seems like hero2 doesn't even point to a unit, and certainly not the one that hero points to, but I don't see how that's possible. hero and hero2 are both local unit variables.

Perhaps a clearer question would be: What do the SaveUnitHandle and LoadUnitHandle functions even do, exactly?

 

[Illidan(Evil)X]

That should work. Did you create the hash table before using it?
set udg_heroTable = InitHashtable()

Save/LoadUnitHandle stores/retrieves a unit to/from a hash table data structure using two integers as hashing keys.
Hash table - Wikipedia

 

[Dr Super Good]

but I don't see how that's possible

As mentioned above, that will happen if you do not initialize the hashtable variable to a hashtable object.

Hash tables are complex object and so require initialization before they can be used.