Houen's Blog

Here’s a situation I often run into: Having a set of variables that are almost alike, but differ in number. For example:

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var textbox1:TextField;
var textbox2:TextField;

Now say I have a function that needs to change these based on a number in another variable. I could do a switch to access them, but that would be repeating myself. Instead I can just access them through my string or integer variable like this:

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var num:int = 1;
trace(this["textbox" + num])

You could, for instance use it to loop over your variables:

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function update_textfield() {
   for each(var i:int = 5; i < something; i++) {
      trace(this["textbox" + i])
   }
}

And presto! Easily accessable variables