1067: Implicit coercion of a value of type String to an unrelated type flash.display:DisplayObject.

[codeBeastAdobe]

Hi guys. I am building little games never anything too big. I'm having fun.

I'm getting the following error message

1067: Implicit coercion of a value of type String to an unrelated type flash.display:DisplayObject.

It's got to do with the varObject variable I pass into the hitTestObject (at the end of the code)

a. I exported the moveclip for actionscript and gave it an instance name so what's the problem???

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, myClickReaction);
// speeds ALONG NYPOTENUSE
var v:Number=5;
var varObject:String;
var i:Number;
var arrayObjects:Array;

// populate array and initiate variables i and varObject
arrayObjects=["chocolate","icecream","pizza","hamburger","sandwich","egg"];
i = 1;
varObject = arrayObjects[i - 1];
trace(varObject);

// mouse click point
var clickPoint:Point = new Point();
function myClickReaction(e:MouseEvent):void {
    clickPoint.x=mouseX;
    clickPoint.y=mouseY;
    addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
}
function onEnterFrame(event:Event):void {
    var xDistance:Number=clickPoint.x-sunny.x;
    var yDistance:Number=clickPoint.y-sunny.y;
    var angle:Number=Math.atan2(yDistance,xDistance);
    sunny.x+=v*Math.cos(angle);
    sunny.y+=v*Math.sin(angle);
    if (clickPoint.x>=sunny.x) {
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("walk right");
        //trace(Math.abs(xDistance));
    }
    if (sunny.x>=clickPoint.x) {
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("walk left");
        //trace(Math.abs(xDistance));
    }
    if (Math.abs(xDistance)<=10) {
        //trace("works");
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("static");
        removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
    }
}
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,enterFrameHandler);
function enterFrameHandler(e:Event):void {
    //if (sunny.hitTestObject(hotspot_pizza)) {
    if (sunny.hitTestObject(varObject)) {
        trace("Yeah boy");
    }
}

[kglad · Accepted solution]

if you have objects with references (in the current scope) that match those strings, you can use:

stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, myClickReaction);
// speeds ALONG NYPOTENUSE
var v:Number=5;
var varObject:String;
var i:Number;
var arrayObjects:Array;

// populate array and initiate variables i and varObject
arrayObjects=["chocolate","icecream","pizza","hamburger","sandwich","egg"];
i = 1;
varObject = arrayObjects[i - 1];
trace(varObject);

// mouse click point
var clickPoint:Point = new Point();
function myClickReaction(e:MouseEvent):void {
    clickPoint.x=mouseX;
    clickPoint.y=mouseY;
    addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
}
function onEnterFrame(event:Event):void {
    var xDistance:Number=clickPoint.x-sunny.x;
    var yDistance:Number=clickPoint.y-sunny.y;
    var angle:Number=Math.atan2(yDistance,xDistance);
    sunny.x+=v*Math.cos(angle);
    sunny.y+=v*Math.sin(angle);
    if (clickPoint.x>=sunny.x) {
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("walk right");
        //trace(Math.abs(xDistance));
    }
    if (sunny.x>=clickPoint.x) {
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("walk left");
        //trace(Math.abs(xDistance));
    }
    if (Math.abs(xDistance)<=10) {
        //trace("works");
        sunny.gotoAndPlay("static");
        removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
    }
}
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,enterFrameHandler);
function enterFrameHandler(e:Event):void {
    //if (sunny.hitTestObject(hotspot_pizza)) {
    if (sunny.hitTestObject(this[varObject])) {
        trace("Yeah boy");
    }
}

[codeBeastAdobe]

THANKS. Works perfectly BUT I really am trying to learn and not just take people's code. What is wrong with my code - it looked perfect. What does "this" do???

[kglad]

you have to instruct flash to coerce your string to an object.  you do that using the array operator:  [ ]

so, if you have an object (eg, a variable var1=33), and you want to use the string "var1" to point to the variable var1, use:

trace(this["var1"]);  // output=33

[codeBeastAdobe]

Thanks, I'll read up on that.

[kglad]

you're welcome.