ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

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Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

Object Properties

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example, the following code creates a new Date object and stores a reference to it in

the variable named

now:

var now = new Date( );

A specific time is a complex set of numbers that includes a second, minute, hour,

day, month, and year. Using a Date object’s methods, we can easily check or set any

aspect of the time represented by the object. For example, we can invoke the

getHours( ) method to check the hour (in 24-hour format), as follows:

trace("The current hour is: " + now.getHours( ));

Let’s take a closer look at how to use an object’s properties and methods before

showing how to add them to our own custom classes.

Object Properties

As you learned earlier, properties are named data containers associated with an

object. They are defined once by an object’s class but set individually for each object

instance. Like variables, object properties can contain any kind of data—strings,

numbers, Booleans,

null, undefined, functions, arrays, movie clips, or even other

objects.

Referring to Properties

The familiar dot operator gives us access to an object’s properties. We separate the

name of the property from the object it belongs to using a dot (a period), as follows:

objectName.propertyName

where objectName is the name of our object and propertyName must be a legal identi- ...