XML: convert XMLList to Array or comma delimited list

[Guest]

Consider this XML:

var xml:XML =
<xml>
<thing id="1">one</thing>
<thing id="2">two</thing>
<thing id="3">three</thing>
<thing id="4">four</thing>
<thing id="5">five</thing>
<thing id="6">six</thing>
<thing id="7">seven</thing>
</xml>

I want to turn it into this:

"one,two,three,four,five,six,seven"

Or this:

["one","two","three","four","five","six","seven"]

What's the simplest way? Ideally I'd like to do it in one line, if it's not too obtuse.

[Craig Grummitt]

interesting exercise. can i kick off with the fairly straightforward(but possibly verbose, considering the power of E4X) three line technique? ( a curly bracket doesn't count as a line does it?)

[Craig Grummitt]

will an XMLList suffice or are you after only an Array or a String?
This will give you what you're after if an XMLList is sufficient:

var xmlList:XMLList=xml.thing.text();

if what you're after is an Array, i've struggled a little to convert an XMLList to an Array. I have found that when converting it to a string with toXMLString(), flash inserts a newline between elements, so (as long as there are no newlines in your data), you could use this to convert to an Array:

var array:Array=xml.thing.text().toXMLString().split("\n");

[Guest]

var xmlList:XMLList=xml.thing.text();

Man, so close. I just need commas or any delimiter. I don't really need an array, I need comma delimiters (which of course would be easy to generate if I had an array, and the other way around.)

toXMLString lets me break on newlines, but I need to get rid of the node syntax and just have the text left over. .

Looping works in two lines if I must. 🙂

[Craig Grummitt]

if you need a comma delimited string, it's getting a little ridiculous, but you could always convert the array i created previously to a string with:
var string:String=xml.thing.text().toXMLString().split("\n").join(",");

Alternatively, you could use a regExp on the string:
var string:String=xml.thing.text().toXMLString().replace(/\n/g,',');

With the xml example you gave, and either of the above two lines of code, string would then contain:
one,two,three,four,five,six,seven

OT: spooky this is my 666th post

[Guest]

var string:String=xml.thing.text().toXMLString().split("\n").join(",");

Bingo, ridiculous is my style, thanks. 🙂