ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition

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

360

|

Chapter 13: Movie Clips

a main movie. Like unloadMovie(), removeMovieClip() can be used in both method

and global function form (though the syntax is different, the effect is the same):

removeMovieClip(theClip) // Global function

theClip.removeMovieClip() // Method

In the global function form of removeMovieClip(), theClip is a string indicating the

path to the clip to remove. Because movie clips are converted to paths when used as

strings,

theClip can also be a movie clip reference. In the method form of

removeMovieClip(),

theClip must be a reference to a movie clip object.

Unlike using unloadMovie(), deleting an instance via removeMovieClip() completely

obliterates the entire clip object, leaving no shell or trace of the clip and its proper-

ties. When we execute theClip.removeMovieClip(), future references to

theClip yield

undefined.

Removing Manually Created Instances Manually

Clip instances created manually in the Flash authoring tool have a limited life span—

they are removed when the playhead enters a keyframe that does not include them.

Hence, manually created movie clips live in fear of the almighty blank keyframe.

Remember that when a movie clip disappears from the timeline, it ceases to exist as a

data object. All variables, functions, methods, and properties that have been ...