Locate container object via an item?

[Ixnatifual]

Is there a simple way to retrieve the object containing an item? Say I have an object in an arbitrary alcove or a chest somewhere. I know the item's name, but not the alcove's. Can I retrieve the alcove without iterating through all alcoves and asking if the item is in them?

[MrChoke]

Do you know the item's ID that you are looking for? If you do not, I think you need to search for it using map:allEntities(), or if you know the location, map:entitiesAt(x, y)

[Ixnatifual]

I assume if the item is located in the alcove they would be at the same coordinates, which means I can narrow the search to the coordinate of the item with map:entitiesAt(x,y). That would limit the overhead a lot.

What I actually want is to put an item in the place of the item in the alcove. Maybe I can just set that item's item value to the item value of the item I wish to replace it with.

I do know the ID of the item, but not the alcove.

[MrChoke]

I assume if the item is located in the alcove they would be at the same coordinates, which means I can narrow the search to the coordinate of the item with map:entitiesAt(x,y). That would limit the overhead a lot.

What I actually want is to put an item in the place of the item in the alcove. Maybe I can just set that item's item value to the item value of the item I wish to replace it with.

I do know the ID of the item, but not the alcove.

Changing what is in the alcove is done by calling methods on its "surface" component.

To add an item, do something like:
alcove_1.surface:addItem(gold_key_1.item)

Not sure how to remove it other than maybe calling setPosition() on the item to remove it. You can check for when it gets removed by implementing a hook on the alcove, "onRemoveItem"

[Ixnatifual]

I know - the problem is finding the alcove. Only the item is known. My script creates an item and puts it in the same location as the first item, then destroys the first item. Essentially it replaces the item. This works fine if the first item is on the ground, but not when it's in a container. The first item can potentially be in almost any arbitrary alcove or chest in the game.

But I think your suggestion of map:entitiesAt(x, y) will work.