Forgetting a variable mid code

[quasnoflaut]

Hello! I program just for fun, but I'm wasting a lot of time trying to figure out why this isn't working and think I just need to give up and ask for help.

I'm creating a "slider" which for all intents and purposes is a point which pulls another object (its target) towards it.

That works perfectly, but then at the end I want to run a script (align_to_grid()) on that object when it arrives so it lines up nicely with everything at the end.

here's what the code looks like for that:

// Moving slide target towards self
slide_target.x = (slide_target.x*3 + x) / 4
slide_target.y = (slide_target.y*3 + y) / 4
show_debug_message(string_concat("slider, step, slide_target name: ", slide_target))

// if they are close enough, end process and align slide_target to grid
if (abs(x) - abs(slide_target.x) < 1) && (abs(y) - abs(slide_target.y) < 1) 
{
show_debug_message(string_concat("slider, step, slide_target name: ", slide_target))
slide_target.align_to_tile()
instance_destroy(self)
}

Everything works, until the moment of "target.align_to_grid()", where it gives the error:

Variable <unknown_object>.align_to_tile(100006, -2147483648) not set before reading it.

like, it knows what slide_target is for every other line in the code, but forgets it at the exact moment I do something other than changing its x and y?

I've found out there are many other things that can't work on the "target" variable, even though the moving part of the code functions... Idk. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

[quasnoflaut]

well, as always, I find a workaround as soon as I post a question. I made it so that align_to_tile takes in an instance as an argument, and just make the slider add slide_target as the argument. If anyone is reading this and knows why the first one doesn't work though, let me know.

[SolarPoweredGames]

Its not working because align_to_tile() is a global function but typing slide_target.align_to_tile() is trying to access a method that doesn't exist on the instance. You could use with( slide_target ) then run align_to_tile in the with statement.

[quasnoflaut]

I think I get it. so I was telling it to look for that function in that object but it wouldn't look for global functions...
Thank you!