Unity3d: track a variable live in your GUI using drag/drop and Inspector (don't write a pointless class every time you need this)

gistfile1.txt

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using System.Reflection;

/**
License: do whatever you want.

Questions etc: @t_machine_org
*/
public class DisplayVariable : MonoBehaviour
{
/** 1/2: Drag/drop a gameobject that has a var you want to display... */
		public GameObject target;
/** 2/2: Type the name of the variable that you want to display... */
		public string variableName;

/** Don't refresh at 60FPS; wasteful! */
		private float updateNSeconds = 0.25f;
		private float lastUpdateTime = 0f;

		// Update is called once per frame
		void Update ()
		{
				lastUpdateTime += Time.deltaTime;

		/** Don't refresh at 60FPS; wasteful! */
				if (lastUpdateTime > updateNSeconds) {
						lastUpdateTime = 0;
			
						Text myText = GetComponent<Text> ();
						if (myText == null) {
								Debug.LogError ("Missing Text object, please disable this DisplayVariable component");
						} else if (variableName == null || target == null) {
								myText.text = "[Unattached]";
						} else {
	
								bool foundIt = false;
								string valueAsString = "";
								
								foreach (Component subComponent in target.GetComponents ( typeof(Component))) {
										FieldInfo[] fields = subComponent.GetType ().GetFields ();
										foreach (FieldInfo fieldInfo in fields) {
												//Debug.Log("Obj: " + subComponent.name + ", Field: " + fieldInfo.Name);
												if (fieldInfo.Name.Equals (variableName)) {
														valueAsString = fieldInfo.GetValue (subComponent).ToString ();
														foundIt = true;
														break;
												}
					
												if (foundIt)
														break;
										}
			
										if (! foundIt) {
												PropertyInfo[] properties = subComponent.GetType ().GetProperties ();
												foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in properties) {
														//Debug.Log ("Obj: " + subComponent.name + ", Property: " + propertyInfo.Name);
														if (propertyInfo.Name.Equals (variableName)) {
																valueAsString = propertyInfo .GetValue (subComponent, null).ToString ();
																foundIt = true;
																break;
														}
						
														if (foundIt)
																break;
												}
										}
								}
								
								/** set the text */
				myText.text = variableName+" = "+valueAsString;
						}
				}
		}
}