ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

setProperty( ) Global Function — assign a value to a movie clip property

Availability

Flash 4 and later

Synopsis

setProperty(movieClip, property, value)

Arguments

movieClip

An expression that yields a string indicating the path to a movie clip. In Flash 5, this may also be a movie clip reference because movie clip references are converted to paths when used in a string context.

property

The name of the built-in property to which value will be assigned. Must be an identifier, not a string (e.g., _alpha, not "_alpha").

value

The new data value to be assigned to the specified property of movieClip.

Description

The setProperty( ) function assigns value to one of movieClip's built-in properties (the built-in properties are listed under the MovieClip class ). It cannot be used to set the value of custom (i.e., user-defined) properties. In Flash 4, setProperty( ) was the only means to assign movie clip property values; as of Flash 5, the . and [] operators are the preferred means of setting both built-in and custom movie clip properties.

Example

// Flash 4 syntax. Rotate the main movie by 45 degrees:
setProperty("_root", _rotation, 45);

// Flash 5 syntax. Also rotates the main movie by 45 degrees:
_root._rotation = 45;

See Also

getProperty( ); Section 13.1 in Chapter 13; Appendix C.