Variable text field in root cannot reside in a movie clip?

[jeffery wright]

I have a movie clip ("mod_control") that resides within other clips that determines the name of its parent and adds a number to a corresponding text field when they appear on stage (example: "Widget_1_count", "Widget_2_count", etc...)

Using this code in the clip works fine:

// get the parent name, example: "Widget_1"

var this_part = Object(this).parent.name;

// get the current value in the corresponding text field, example: "Widget_1_count"

var c_this_part:Number = Number(Object(root[this_part + "_count"]).text);

// add 1 to the current text field value

var v_this_part:Number = Number(c_this_part+1);

// update the text field with the new value

Object(root[this_part + "_count"]).text = String(v_this_part)

I will eventually have several dozen text fields (for several dozen parts) so I now contain them all in a movieclip with instance name "part_count".

So I added part_count into the target path:

var this_part = Object(this).parent.name;

var c_this_part:Number = Number(Object(root.part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text);

var v_this_part:Number = Number(c_this_part+1);

Object(root.part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text = String(v_this_part)

...but that produced this error:

Symbol 'mod_control', Layer 'as', Frame 1, Line 20

1119: Access of possibly undefined property part_count through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObject.

and then I tried this:

var this_part = Object(this).parent.name;

var c_this_part:Number = Number(Object(root[part_count.this_part + "_count"]).text);

var v_this_part:Number = Number(c_this_part+1);

Object(root[part_count.this_part + "_count"]).text = String(v_this_part)

...but that produced this error:

Symbol 'mod_control', Layer 'as', Frame 1, Line 20

1120: Access of undefined property part_count.

As is often the case, I may have overlooked an obvious nuance of syntax... could that be the situation here, or is this action simply impossible in flash?

I appreciate the wealth of knowledge and experience here and thank you in advance for giving my issue some thought.

[kglad]

cast part_count as a MovieClip:

[jeffery wright]

When you say "cast" my movieclip as a movieclip, I'm afraid I do not know what that means. I have never heard of that before, is there an example of this somewhere?

Thanks.

[kglad]

this is casting root as an object

Object(root)

but from the looks of your code, it's a movieclip and you should use:

MovieClip(root).part_count["tf_"+1].text=whatever;

i'm not sure you need to do anything other than that.  but if you need to cast part_count too, use:

MovieClip(MovieClip(root).part_count)["tf_"+1].text=whatever;

[jeffery wright · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the info, I used your suggestion:

var this_part = Object(this).parent.name;

var c_this_part:Number = Number(MovieClip(MovieClip(root).part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text);

var v_this_part:Number = Number(c_this_part+1);

MovieClip(MovieClip(root).part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text = String(v_this_part)

And the movie compiled fine, but when I added an object to the stage (which fires the above code) I got this error:

TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert flash.text::TextField@79cb351 to flash.display.MovieClip.

          at IF_Config_38_fla::mod_control_49/frame1()[IF_Config_38_fla.mod_control_49::frame1:27]

What actually did the trick, was casting the clips as Objects:

var this_part = Object(this).parent.name;

var c_this_part:Number = Number(Object(Object(root).part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text);

var v_this_part:Number = Number(c_this_part+1);

Object(Object(root).part_count[this_part + "_count"]).text = String(v_this_part)

Worked a treat!

Staggeringly confusing, I wish I knew why it worked, but it does.

Thanks again!

[kglad]

you're welcome.