How to convert a list of 1 to an individual turtle

Question

I have a list which will always contain only 1 turtle in it. It is a patch-only variable and hence when any patch is inspected it appears like best-turtle: [(turtle 1)].

I am reference this particular turtle in another routine using the following code:

ask patches [
set closest-turtle best-turtle
set pcolor scale-color ([color] of closest-turtle + 2) share 0 10
]

I am getting the following error:

OF expected input to be a turtle agentset or link agentset or turtle or link but got the list [(party 0)] instead.
error while patch 4 -2 running OF
  called by procedure UPDATE-SUPPORT
  called by procedure SETUP
  called by Button 'Setup'

It is because of the closest-turtle variable being a list rather than a turtle. SO is there a way to convert a list of 1 to a turtle or some other way to solve this problem.

Answer 1

If you are indeed sure that there will always be one turtle in your list, you can extract it with first or item:

set closest-turtle first best-turtle

or:

set closest-turtle item 0 best-turtle