Replacing an instance on the stage with an instance from library

[McSmackin]

I have several instances (movieclips) in the library that will be placed on the stage when the user clicks the appropriate button.

My first thought was to create a container for the movieclips to load into:

var mcContainer: Sprite = new Sprite();

addChild(mcContainer);

This is the code for one of the buttons:

btnStep1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Step1);

function Step1(event: MouseEvent): void {

var Step1: Step1;

Step1 = new Step1();

mcContainer.addChild(Step1);

Step1.x = 238;

Step1.y = 167;

trace: ("Step1");

}

I was hoping that loading movieclip Step2 into the mcContainer would automatically remove Step1 movieclip.

The end user has the ability to click any one of 6 buttons so I could not use removeChild since it could be one of a possible 6 movieclips loaded.

What am trying to achieve to load an instance from the library with a mouse click and if the user clicks one of 5 other buttons, the corresponding instance loads and replaces the instance currently on the stage.

[Ned Murphy]

I don't have the reference handy but I believe there is a method called removeChildAt() whereby you don't need to know which object is in the container, just remove whichever occupies it using the index.

[McSmackin]

Thanks. I need to figure out where the instance is in the index.

My initial test removed the objects on the stage and not the intended instance.

[Ned Murphy]

As JoãoCésar indicates, be sure to make it a method of the container.  You could use the numChildren property to loop thru and remove all of any, but if you know there will ever only be one at a time, then just checking if there is one is sufficient to target the child at the 0 index (it cannot be anywhere else).

[JoãoCésar]

I'm not sure if I understand your problem... Does your container have only one instance at a time?

If so...

Assuming that you have a container MovieClip on the stage called 'container' and five buttons called 'square', 'roundedSquare', 'circle', 'pacMan', and 'pentagon'.

import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
import flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName;
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mouseHandler);
function mouseHandler(e:MouseEvent):void
{
     if (e.target == square || e.target == roundedSquare || e.target == circle || e.target == pacMan || e.target == pentagon)
     {
     var C:Class = Class(getDefinitionByName(getQualifiedClassName(e.target)));
     if (container.numChildren > 0)
          container.removeChildAt(0);
     container.addChild(new C());
     }
}

[McSmackin]

Yes. The container will only have one instance at any time.

I appreciate everyone's help and will work this code into my project and see if I get it to work.

Another possible option I may have come up with from Ned's suggestion:

btnStep1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Step1);

function Step1(event: MouseEvent): void {

SoundMixer.stopAll();

var Step1: Step1;

Step1 = new Step1();

mcContainer.removeChildren();

mcContainer.addChild(Step1);

Step1.x = 238;

Step1.y = 167;

trace ("Step1");

}

Testing and more testing