Actionscript 3 introspection -- function names - apache-flex

Question

I am trying to iterate through each of the members of an object. For each member, I check to see if it is a function or not. If it is a function, I want to get the name of it and perform some logic based on the name of the function. I don't know if this is even possible though. Is it? Any tips?
example:
var mems: Object = getMemberNames(obj, true);
for each(mem: Object in members) {
if(!(mem is Function))
continue;
var func: Function = Function(mem);
//I want something like this:
if(func.getName().startsWith("xxxx")) {
func.call(...);
}
}
I'm having a hard time finding much on doing this. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Your pseudocode is close to doing what you want. Instead of using getMemberNames, however, which can get private methods, you can loop over the members with a simple for..in loop, and get the values of the members using brackets. For example:
public function callxxxxMethods(o:Object):void
{
for(var name:String in o)
{
if(!(o[name] is Function))
continue;
if(name.startsWith("xxxx"))
{
o[name].call(...);
}
}
}

Answer 2

Dan Monego's answer is on the money, but only works for dynamic members. For any fixed instance (or static) members, you'll have to use flash.utils.describeType:
var description:XML = describeType(obj);
/* By using E4X, we can use a sort of lamdba like statement to find the members
* that match our criteria. In this case, we make sure the name starts with "xxx".
*/
var methodNames:XMLList = description..method.(#name.substr(0, 3) == "xxx");
for each (var method:XML in methodNames)
{
var callback:Function = obj[method.#name];
callback(); // For calling with an unknown set of parameters, use callback.apply
}
Use this in conjunction with Dan's answer if you have a mix of dynamic and fixed members.

Answer 3

I've done some work and combined both approaches. Mind you, it works only for publicly visible members - in all other cases null is returned.
/**
* Returns the name of a function. The function must be <b>publicly</b> visible,
* otherwise nothing will be found and <code>null</code> returned.</br>Namespaces like
* <code>internal</code>, <code>protected</code>, <code>private</code>, etc. cannot
* be accessed by this method.
*
* #param f The function you want to get the name of.
*
* #return The name of the function or <code>null</code> if no match was found.</br>
* In that case it is likely that the function is declared
* in the <code>private</code> namespace.
**/
public static function getFunctionName(f:Function):String
{
// get the object that contains the function (this of f)
var t:Object = getSavedThis(f);
// get all methods contained
var methods:XMLList = describeType(t)..method.#name;
for each (var m:String in methods)
{
// return the method name if the thisObject of f (t)
// has a property by that name
// that is not null (null = doesn't exist) and
// is strictly equal to the function we search the name of
if (t.hasOwnProperty(m) && t[m] != null && t[m] === f) return m;
}
// if we arrive here, we haven't found anything...
// maybe the function is declared in the private namespace?
return null;
}
greetz,
tox