%getNpcPointer()

Aliases%getNpcPointer( ), %getNpcPtr( )
Parametersmixed @entity

    Returns an NPC mobile pointer for the given entity parameter or null on
failure. If @entity is set to an NPC mobile pointer then it is checked for
validity and returned if valid. Alternatively if @entity is set to an
integer value then the first mobile in the game having a vnum of that
value is returned. Finally if @entity contains one or more keywords then a
pointer to the first mobile matching the keywords is returned.

It is strongly advised that if you use the keyword approach that you use a
keyword that is very unlikely to be used by any other mobile. For instance
setting @entity to "thief" will more than likely cause your script to
break at some point since the most recently loaded mobile to have "thief"
as a keyword will be returned.

Examples:

@npc = %getNpcPointer( @keyword )

@npc = %getNpcPointer( 101090 )

@npc = %getNpcPointer( "greedy_the_giant" )