Flash CS4 All-in-One For Dummies- P13: Welcome to Flash CS4 All-in-One For Dummies. Our goal when writing this book was to share our enthusiasm for Flash and, at the same time, demystify the application. You can do so many things with Flash that it becomes mind boggling. The minibooks in this reference are designed to take the boggle out of your mind and show you how to use Flash to create Web banners, animations, and other delights. We also delve into the topics of ActionScript and Flash video. | Chapter 5 Harnessing the Power of ActionScript In This Chapter Creating arrays Pushing data to arrays Retrieving array elements with Pop Sorting arrays Introducing the Vector class Using string identifiers in Vector elements Incorporating the method Starting and stopping drag operations Drawing with ActionScript Creating triangles with vertices and indices oo often we hear Web designers and devel-B opers pine for the good old days when ActionScript consisted of just a few lines of code spread all over the place. Well we disagree. ActionScript has a learning curve for people accustomed to using previous versions but the good thing about ActionScript is that now that it has been retooled into a standardized more efficient form it will be around for a while and even though some changes will inevitably be made in future versions you don t have to figure out how to use it from scratch every time a new version is released and you want to sit down to make the world s greatest Flash application. AMUJTMACNim Press button to see array contents. true Cow 66 Apple 4 This array has 7 elements. In this chapter we show you how to use grouping structures that corral more than a single element and give each one a unique value and we tell you about arrays that have been included in several generations of ActionScript. Using arrays you can easily have several values different types of data stored in the same place for ease of access. In addition you see vectors the brand-new type of grouping structure. As you will see vectors are much like arrays although they can be of different types just like variables. 338 Meet the Gang Arrays In this and the preceding chapters in this minibook we only scratch the surface of ActionScript . In Book VI you see lots more ActionScript used with video. All the code listings in this chapter are available for downloading from this book s companion Web site at go flashallinone. Some
