Generalizing instance name in ActionScript3

Question

Imagine there is a situation : I have 100 movieclips with instance names : MC1a, MC2a, MC3a .. MC100a and i want all of them to be invisible is there any other way than :

MC1a.visible = false; ... MC100a.visible = false;

because in this way the code gets very heavy and i thinks it's not the right way. so i was thinking is there any possible way to be something like that :

MC*a.visible = false;

all the movieclips that contains 'MC' in the begging and 'a' and the ending to disappear ? maybe something with array ?

bokan · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13 17:03:46Z

3

If the parent of all these movieclips is called container you can do :

container["MC"+i+"a"].visible=false

This is due to the script nature of ActionScript.

For your particular case you can do

for(i=0;i<100;i++){
    container["MC"+i+"a"].visible=false;
}

If you don't have all number between 0 and 100 you can do something like this :

for each(MovieClip mc in container){
    name=mc.name;
    if(name.substring(0,2)=="MC" && name.substring(-1)=="a"){
        mc.visible=false;
    }
}

(This is non tested pseudocode written on the fly)

edited Sep 13, 2012 at 17:03

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 13:12

bokan

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3 Comments

Josh Over a year ago

for each loops are actually quite slow. If the OP is worried about heavy code and possible slowness changing the visibility of those MovieClips, he'll want to avoid for each, for...in, and while loops here.

bokan Over a year ago

@Apocalyptic0n3 Yeah right, I updated the answer. I don't know why I thought he had random numbered mc.

Josh Over a year ago

Even if that were the case, he would be better off using a standard for loop rather than a for each. for ( var i:Number = 0; i < container.numChildren; i++ ) { (container.getChildAt(i) as MovieClip).visible = false; }

Vesper · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13 13:20:00Z

There are several ways you can achieve this. First - make a Sprite container, which will be their common parent, then alter its visibility. This is not a flexible way, for example, if your movie clips are located on two different areas of stage, and need to interact somehow, you might be unable to put them all under a single parent in your display list. The second way is to make an array out of those 100 movie clips at the time of their instantiation (if possible, of course), then you iterate through the array and assign their visibility in a loop.

Basically, if you have some objects that should form a structure, consider linking them somehow first, then altering their visibility or other parameters all together. Should you need to move them all at once, or hide, the container approach will be better. Should you need them to perform similar, but not exactly same actions (say you have monsters as movie clips, and you need them to move together, but each with their own direction and speed), you should have an array.

Another thing to consider, if there is a movie clip that has a name like "MCbig_a", that is, complies with your condition, but does not exactly belong to the group of MCs you desire to make invisible, you will have to take precautions about such occurrences.

fenixkim · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13 15:24:25Z

0

Assuming that al children are added in the same container called myContainer

var container:MovieClip = myContainer;
var i:uint = container.numChildren;
while (i--)
{
    var child:* = container.getChildAt(i);
    child.visible = false;
}

answered Sep 13, 2012 at 15:24

fenixkim

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2 Comments

Vesper Over a year ago

wouldn't it be easier setting visibility of the entire container to false? :)

fenixkim Over a year ago

Of course it's much easier, but you do not know if you need to make a specific item visible again.

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