MonoBehaviour.Awake()

Description

Awake is called when the script instance is being loaded.

Awake is used to initialize any variables or game state before the game starts. Awake is called only once during the lifetime of the script instance. Awake is called after all objects are initialized so you can safely speak to other objects or query them using for example GameObject.FindWithTag. Each GameObject's Awake is called in a random order between objects. Because of this, you should use Awake to set up references between scripts, and use Start to pass any information back and forth. Awake is always called before any Start functions. This allows you to order initialization of scripts. Awake can not act as a coroutine.

Note: Use Awake instead of the constructor for initialization, as the serialized state of the component is undefined at construction time. Awake is called once, just like the constructor.

using UnityEngine;

public class ExampleClass : MonoBehaviour
{
    private GameObject target;

    void Awake()
    {
        target = GameObject.FindWithTag("Player");
    }
}

An inactive GameObject can be activated when GameObject.SetActive is called on it.

The following two scripts work together. Two GameObjects called Cube1 and Cube2 are used. Example1.cs is the script for Cube1. The script is marked as inactive using the Inspector top-left button. This means that Cube1 is hidden. Cube2 is marked as active. However, Cube1 is a public GameObject for Cube2. The Example2 script can activate Cube1 and cause it to execute the Awake function in the Example1.cs script .

using UnityEngine;

// Make sure that Cube1 is assigned this script and is inactive at the start of the game.

public class Example1 : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Awake()
    {
        Debug.Log("Awake");
    }

    void Start()
    {
        Debug.Log("Example1");
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown("b"))
        {
            print("b key was pressed");
        }
    }
}

Example2. This causes Awake in Example1 to be called. The Space key is used to perform this:

using UnityEngine;

public class Example2 : MonoBehaviour
{
    // GO has Example1 script assigned to it so is Cube1
    public GameObject GO;

    void Start()
    {
        Debug.Log("Example2");
    }

    // allow Cube1 to activated just once
    private bool activateGO = true;

    void Update()
    {
        if (activateGO == true)
        {
            if (Input.GetKeyDown("space"))
            {
                Debug.Log("space key was pressed");
                GO.SetActive(true);
                activateGO = false;
            }
        }
    }
}

Awake cannot be a co-routine.