ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

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Chapter 11: Arrays

The splice() method

Earlier we saw that splice() can both remove elements from and add elements to an

array. Since we’ve already looked at splice() in detail, we won’t reexamine it here.

However, given our current context, we should specifically demonstrate splice()’s

element-removal capabilities:

var x = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"];

x.splice(1,3); // Removes elements 1, 2, and 3, leaving ["a", "e", "f"]

x.splice(1); // Removes elements 1 through the end leaving just ["a"]

General Array-Manipulation Tools

We’ve now seen how array methods can be used to remove elements from and add

elements to arrays. ActionScript also offers built-in methods for reordering and sort-

ing elements, converting array elements to strings, and extracting arrays from other

arrays.

The reverse() Method

As its name suggests, the reverse() method reverses the order of the elements of an

array. This method is simple but impressive. Here’s the syntax:

arrayName.reverse()

And here are the results:

var x = [1, 2, 3, 4];

x.reverse();

trace(x); // Displays: "4,3,2,1"

We typically use reverse() to reorder a sorted list. For example, if we have a list of

products sorted by ascending price, we can display them from least to most expen-

sive, or we can reverse the list to display them from most to least ...