AActor::GetParentActor

function Engine Blueprint Since 4.14

#include "GameFramework/Actor.h"

Access: public Specifiers: UFUNCTIONBlueprintCallable

Description

Returns the actor that owns the UChildActorComponent which created this actor, or nullptr if this actor was not spawned as a child actor. This is equivalent to calling GetParentComponent()->GetOwner().

Caveats & Gotchas

• Returns nullptr for actors that were not created by a UChildActorComponent — do not assume a non-null result unless IsChildActor() is true.
• This traverses the ChildActorComponent ownership chain, not the scene attachment hierarchy. An actor can be spatially attached to another actor (via AttachToActor) without GetParentActor() returning anything.
• If a child actor is subsequently detached from its spawning component at runtime, the result may still be valid since the component owns the actor until it is destroyed.

Signature

ENGINE_API AActor* GetParentActor() const

Return Type

AActor*

Example

Access the owning actor of a child actor C++

void AMyChildActor::BeginPlay()
{
	Super::BeginPlay();
	if (AActor* Parent = GetParentActor())
	{
		// Notify the parent that this child has started
		Parent->Tags.AddUnique(FName("HasActiveChild"));
	}
}

Version History

Introduced in: 4.14

Version	Status	Notes
5.6	stable	—

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