Is there a simple way to retrieve the length of an associative array (implemented as an Object) in ActionScript 3.0?
I understand that there are two primary ways of creating associative arrays in AS3:
Use a Dictionary object; especially handy when the key does not need to be a string
Use an Object, and simply create properties for each desired element. The property name is the key, and the value is, well, the value.
My application uses approach #2 (using the Object class to represent associative arrays).
I am hoping there is something more native than my for loop, which manually counts up all the elements.
You have to count them in a for loop as you do. Of course, you could make a class and stick the for loop in that class.
For some great implmentations of Collections in AS3, check these guys.
Edit 2013 Not surprisingly, links do break after time. Try this new one: http://www.grindheadgames.com/get-the-length-of-an-object.
Doing a few tests on this has actually surprised me. Here's normal use of an Array:
var things:Array = [];
things.push("hi!");
trace(things.length);
// traces 1
trace(things);
// traces hi!
Here's if we set a value to a string:
var things:Array = [];
things["thing"] = "hi!";
trace(things.length);
// traces 0
trace(things);
// traces an empty string
trace(things["thing"]);
// traces hi!
Basically if you add things using strings you're setting properties rather than actually adding to the array. Makes me wonder why Array is dynamic in this way.
So... yeah count the items with a for ... in loop!
I think you're stuck with counting them "manually".
An option would be to wrap the whole thing in a class and keep a separate variable that you update as you add/remove.
var count:int;
var key:String;
for (key in myObject)
{
count++;
}
trace ("myObject has this many keys in it: " + count);
or, alternatively, the for-each syntax (I haven't tested to see which is faster)
for each (var o:* in myObject)
{
count++;
}
Related
I'm doing some Actionscript work right now and I'd like to know whether there's a way to initiate an empty object's value programatically like this:
var myObj:Object = new Object;
myObj.add("aKey","aValue");
To add a property called aKey whose value is aValue
I need to create a "Dumb" (data-only) object to use as a parameter to send via POST. So I don't know offhand how long and/or how many attributes it's gonna have.
Or something like that.
Thanks
ActionScript 3 allows you to create new Objects using an expressive Object Literal syntax similar to the one found in JavaScript:
const myObj : Object = {
aKey: "aValue",
};
trace(myObj.aKey); // "aValue"
If you want to assign properties after the object has been constructed then you can use either dot notation or square bracket notation, eg:
const myObj : Object = {}; // create an empty object.
myObj.aKey = "aValue";
myObj["anotherKey"] = "anotherValue";
If you plan on sending the data over HTTP, you may wish to consider looking at the URLVariables class which will take care of URL encoding the data for you.
Let's Say I Have This Class:
package{
import flash.display.Sprite;
public class Main extends Sprite{
public function Main(){
trace(getAverage(1,2,3));
trace(getAverage(1,2,3,4));
trace(getAverage(1,2,3,4,5));
}
public function getAverage (...numbers) {
var total = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {
total += numbers [i];
}
return total / numbers.length;
}
}
}
How do I accomplish the "opposite" of this? Namely, how could I now CALL 'getAverage' with a dynamic number of paraemters?
For instance, if I wanted to do something LIKE:
var r:int=Math.random()*6;
var a:Array=new Array();
for (i:int=0;i<r;i++) {
a[i]=Math.random()*22;
}
// Now I have 'r' Number Of Parameters Stored In 'a'
// How Do I Call getAverage, with all the values in 'a'??
// getAverage(a) isn't right, is it?
// I'm looking for something similar to getAverage(a[0],a[1],a[...]);
var av:Number=getAverage(???);
What I want to know, is if I have a function that takes a variable number of arguments, that's great, but how can I CALL IT with a variable number of arguments, when that number isn't known at runtime? Possibly it's impossible... I'm just not sure, since 'callLater' seems to be able to take an array and generate a dynamic number of parameters from it somehow...
NOTE: Answers consisting solely of "Why Do You Want To Do This?", will be downvoted.
P.S. This IS NOT about calculating Averages! I REALIZE There Are Way Simpler Ways Of Doing All Of This! (I could just write getAverage to accept a single array as its only parameter) The Above is just an EXAMPLE to Illustrate my Question. HOW TO PASS A DYNAMIC NUMBER OF PARAMETERS TO A FUNCTION?
Is this what you're looking for?
var av:Number = getAverage.apply(null, a);
Dave is correct. You can use the apply method of a function to pass in an Array of arguments.
Here is a better explanation of how it works and what the arguments of apply are:
http://www.adobe.com/livedocs/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/Function.html
Also note that you can use the call method to do the same thing but using ...args (comma-delimited list) instead, but apply would be more suitable to your situation.
The problem with your question is that the arguments object is already an Array and using (...args) already provides you with a dynamic way to pass any number of arguments you require. Sorry about the previous answer, wasn't thinking straight...
You can create an array or an object with those parameters and pass that object to that function. That's just normal.
Flash has a rather strong introspection capabilities. So, instead of passing a number of objects, you just pass a single dynamic object with any number of attributes you need:
var ob:Object={arg1:"value1", arg2:8};
var arg:String="arg4";
ob["arg3"]=8;
ob[arg]=18;
trace (ob.hasOwnProperty("arg1"));
trace (ob.arg3);
trace (ob.arg4);
That should cover just about any use case you might need. The downside is that this allows for some rather clever and hard to trace bugs. :-)
I have the following dictionary in flex, and i d like to sort it by value. Couldn't find any resource.
'1'=>2, '0' =>1, '3'=>4 ..
Any ideas ? How can i sort this by value ?
I searched around for a similar solution, except that I needed to sort the dictionary map and return a sorted collection relating key value pairs. After failing to find a published solution I put together the approach below. This method takes a dictionary as input, creates an array maintaining the association then sorts the resultant array using array.sortOn() and returns the sorted results back as an array. "key" and "value" fields in the array in the example below are used for clarity, but any field name could be used.
This example assumes a string object as a key and a numeric object as a value, though of course any object type could be used, and field parameters adjusted.
The approach below could also be used for sorting by key instead of value by using "key" as the sort field for the sortOn method, and you could use different sort options than the descending numeric sort I used here( AS3 SortOn() documentation) Code below is intentionally non-generic to simplify it for example purposes.
public static function sortDictionaryByValue(d:Dictionary):Array
{
var a:Array = new Array();
for (var dictionaryKey:Object in d)
{
a.push({key:dictionaryKey,value:d[dictionaryKey]});
}
a.sortOn("value",[Array.NUMERIC|Array.DESCENDING]);
return a;
}
Probably not the best way to do it but it works:
var a:Array = new Array();
for each (var v:Number in dict)
{
a.push(v);
}
a.sort();
Hi when I have an array in actionscript
var arr : Array = new Array();
arr["fsad"] = 1;
trace(arr.length);
and now put an entry to it with an associative string and afterwards count the length I get a length of 0 but why? How can I iterate it now?
Thanks in advance
Sebastian
What you want to accomplish is called a Dictionary i guess :)
Well, to quote the reference:
Do not use the Array class to create associative arrays (also called hashes), which are data structures that contain named elements instead of numbered elements. To create associative arrays, use the Object class. Although ActionScript permits you to create associative arrays using the Array class, you cannot use any of the Array class methods or properties with associative arrays.
I'm not sure why AS3 still allows Arrays to be used associatively - perhaps they were worried about AS2 migration - but it's best avoided. So far as I know, built-in Array fixtures like length and pop() will simply ignore anything added with a a key that isn't an integer, but they might also behave unpredictably.
In JavaScript (which is a brother of ActionScript) using spidermonkey:
var obj = new Object(); // {}
obj["foo"] = 1;
print(obj.__count__); => 1 // non-standard Gecko
var arr = new Array(); // []
arr.push(1);
print(arr.length); => 1
Use Array for arrays and Object for dictionaries. It's not like PHP where everything is done using the same type.
you can create you own associative arrays using Proxy ... this will come at a high performance cost, but you can implement array access overriding getProperty and setProperty, and for each in and for in overriding nextNameIndex as well as nextValue and nextName respectively ... you can also implement Array's forEach, filter, map, any, every etc. methods, so it looks like a real Array from outside ... but you should only do that, in situations, where it is not performace critical or unevitable ...
greetz
back2dos
Does anyone have any recommendations for working with name/value pairs in Flex?
Context:
I want to create a Flex UI for updating a database table. I want the UI to contain the field name(read only) and current field value (which will be editable). Im using the WebService component to retrieve the field value and then asssigning it to an object with the field name hardcoded e.g.
private function resultHandler(event:ResultEvent):Object
{
var resultsObj:Object;
resultsObj = {
name:event.result.name as String,
This approach however is adding the dependency that the table structure/field names will never change. Using the object type also requries that i write my own algorithm to sort the output.
I'm not sure I understand the issue.
If you want to avoid dependency of the properties returned from the event at this point, simply use the event.result object, which is already an associative array.
As for sorting, we would need more context on what you are attempting to sort.
That's pretty simple. Don't use for each in loop. Use For-In Loop
Demo is shown below.
var dicEntry:Object = new Object();
dicEntry["Name"] = "Raj";
dicEntry["sal"] = 10000;
dicEntry["age"] = 33;
for(var key:Object in dicEntry)
{
trace("Object Key: "+key+" Object Value: +dicEntry[key]);
}
That's it.