Actionscript Cookbook

11.11. Getting Checkbox Values

Problem

You want to determine the values (true or false) of checkboxes.

Solution

Use the getValue( ) method for each checkbox, or create a custom getValues( ) method for the checkbox group.

Discussion

The getValue( ) method returns true if a checkbox is checked and false if the checkbox is unchecked:

trace(myCheckBox0_ch.getValue(  ));

If you have created a checkbox group (see Recipe 11.10), you can add a custom method, getValues( ), that returns an array of the values for each checkbox in the group. The elements of the returned array contain three properties:

name

The name of the checkbox instance

label

The label value of the checkbox

value

The value of the checkbox (true or false)

Here is our custom getValues( ) method, which you should add to your Form.as file for easy inclusion in future projects:

// Create the new method, getValues(  ), for the FCheckBoxGroupClass.
FCheckBoxGroupClass.prototype.getValues = function (  ) {

  // The dataAr array is populated with the objects for each checkbox in the group.
  var dataAr = new Array(  );

  // Create two local variables for use in the for statement.
  var cb, obj;

  // Loop through every checkbox in the group.
  for (var i = 0; i < this.radioInstances.length; i++) {

    // cb refers to the current checkbox.
    cb = this.radioInstances[i];

    // For each checkbox, create an object with name, label, and value properties. obj = new Object( ); obj.name = cb._name; obj.label = cb.getLabel( ); obj.value = cb.getValue( ); // Add the object ...