Unity: Load Assets in Editor

Sometimes you need to load assets in the editor without the comfort of a direct reference. Assets are loaded using the AssetDatabase and it can be done by

• Path
• Label
• Name
• GUID
• Instance ID

Instance ID

GUID

Load Specific Asset

I wouldn’t recommend using a specific asset path for loading. It can easily break when someone decides to move the asset. A more future-proof and reliable approach is to load assets based on their GUID.

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;

public static class AssetLoader
{
	public static T LoadAsset<T>(string guid) where T : class
	{
		string assetPath = AssetDatabase.GUIDToAssetPath(guid);
		var asset = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(assetPath, typeof(T)) as T;
		return asset;
	}
}
#endif

Load Assets From Folder

If the assets you want to load are placed in a specific location, you can use AssetDatabase.FindAsset to get them. The function takes a list of folders and a search-string as parameters.  It’s a bit more involved than loading by GUID. But the search-string makes the function very versatile because you can use every input that you would type into the project window (search field) to locate assets.

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public static class AssetLoader
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Loads all assets of type <typeparamref name="T"/> in the 
	/// <paramref name="folderPath"/> including subfolders.
	/// </summary>
	/// <typeparam name="T"> Type of the assets to load.</typeparam>
	/// <param name="folderPath"> Path starting at the asset folder.
	/// Example: Assets/Folder/Folder </param>
	/// <returns></returns>
	public static List<T> LoadAssetsFromFolder<T>(string folderPath) where T : class
	{
		List<T> loadedAssets = new List<T>();
		string searchString = $"t:{typeof(T)}";

		string[] assetGUIDs = AssetDatabase.FindAssets(searchString, new[] { folderPath });

		foreach (var assetGUID in assetGUIDs)
		{
			string assetPath = AssetDatabase.GUIDToAssetPath(assetGUID);
			T loadedAsset = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(assetPath, typeof(T)) as T;
			loadedAssets.Add(loadedAsset);
		}

		return loadedAssets;
	}
}
#endif

Load Assets with Label

This uses the same approach as the previous function. It just changes the search string for the AssetDatabase.FindAssets.

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public static class AssetLoader
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Loads all labeled assets of type <typeparamref name="T"/> in the 
	/// <paramref name="folderPath"/> including subfolders.
	/// </summary>
	/// <typeparam name="T"> Type of the assets to load.</typeparam>
	/// <param name="folderPath"> Path starting at the asset folder.
	/// Example: Assets/Folder/Folder </param>
	/// <param name="label">Asset label</param>
	/// <returns></returns>
	public static List<T> LoadAssetsByLabel<T>(string folderPath, string label) where T : class
	{
		List<T> loadedAssets = new List<T>();
		string searchString = $"t:{typeof(T)} l:{label}";

		string[] assetGUIDs = AssetDatabase.FindAssets(searchString, new[] { folderPath });

		foreach (var assetGUID in assetGUIDs)
		{
			string assetPath = AssetDatabase.GUIDToAssetPath(assetGUID);
			T loadedAsset = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(assetPath, typeof(T)) as T;
			loadedAssets.Add(loadedAsset);
		}

		return loadedAssets;
	}
}
#endif