ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

Object Class — the basis for all other classes and for generic objects

Availability

Flash 5

Constructor

new Object( )

Properties

constructor

A reference to the class constructor function used to create the object.

__proto__

A reference to the prototype property of the object’s constructor function.

Methods

toString( )

Convert the value of the object to a string.

valueOf( )

Retrieve the primitive value of the object, if one exists.

Description

The Object class is the base class of the ActionScript object model. Object is used for two general purposes: (a) as a constructor for creating new, generic objects, and (b) as a superclass upon which to base new classes. All classes in ActionScript, whether user-defined or built-in are descendants of the Object class. All objects of all classes therefore inherit the properties of Object (though some classes override those properties).

To create a generic object of the Object class directly in our code without using a constructor, we can use an object literal just as we might use a string literal or an array literal. An object literal is a series of comma-separated property name/value pairs, enclosed in curly braces. Here’s the general syntax:

{ property1: value1, property2: value2, property3: value3 }

The names of properties in an object literal must be legal identifiers as described in Chapter 14. The values may be any valid expression. For example:

// An object literal with two numeric properties myObject = { x: 30, y: 23 }; // Set the x property value ...