ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

TextField.getDepth() Method

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ActionScript Language Reference

TextField.getDepth() Method

returns the position of the text field in the content stack

Flash 6

theField.getDepth()

Returns

An integer depth level.

Description

Text fields, movie clips, and buttons are all placed in the Player in an order that governs

how objects stack visually. An internal depth property indicates each object’s order in the

content stack. The getDepth() method tells us a field’s integer depth position. Each depth

level can have only one occupant, whether the occupant is a text field, button, or movie

clip. Objects on higher depths appear in front of those with lower depths. For text fields

created at runtime with MovieClip.createTextField(), the return value of getDepth() is the

depth assigned to the method’s

depth parameter. For example:

// Sets depth to 13

this.createTextField("theField_txt", 13, 0, 0, 150, 20);

trace(theField_txt.getDepth()); // Displays: 13

For text fields created manually at authoring time, getDepth() returns a depth in the range

of –16383 to –1 (inclusive). Unlike the MovieClip class, TextField has no swapDepths()

method, so each text field’s depth is fixed once it has been assigned.

For much more information about depths, see “Movie and Instance Stacking Order” in

Chapter 13.

See Also

MovieClip.createTextField( ...