ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Other Operators

The remaining operators apply to topics considered in other chapters. We’ll include them here for quick reference only and describe their usage fully in those chapters.

The Bitwise Operators

If you’re planning to develop large-scale systems in which every iota of memory, calculation speed, and transfer-rate optimization makes a meaningful difference in performance, read about the bitwise operators in Chapter 15. Otherwise, use the Boolean logical operators, which perform the same tasks the bitwise operators do, albeit in a less optimized way.

The typeof Operator

The typeof operator is used to determine the datatype of an expression. It takes one operand, as follows:

typeof operand;

where operand may be any legal expression. The return value of the typeof operation is a string indicating the datatype of the evaluated operand. See Chapter 3 for more details.

The new Operator

The new operator creates a new composite datum — either an array or an object. The object may be a member of a built-in class or a user-defined class. The syntax for new is:

new constructor

where constructor must be a function that defines the properties of the newly created object. See Chapter 11, and Chapter 12.

The delete Operator

We use the delete operator to remove an object, an object property, an array element, or variables from a script. The syntax for delete is:

delete identifier

If identifier is not a data container (variable, property, or element), the delete operation fails and returns the value ...