How Do I Reference/Target the Child of an emptyMovieClip using an Array?

[berry_lthird]

for (var menuItemNumber = 1; menuItemNumber<totalMenuItems; menuItemNumber++) {
	_parent.createEmptyMovieClip("menuItem_"+menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth());
	_parent["menuItem_"+menuItemNumber].createTextField("itemText_"+menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth);
	_parent["menuItem_"+menuItemNumber]["itemText_"+menuItemNumber].text = "Test";
}

The above code in red does not work.

Does anyone know the proper notation that will allow me to reference/target the .text attribute of any of the "itemText_"+menuItemNumber instances?

[winterac]

This small change:

_parent["menuItem_"+menuItemNumber].createTextField("itemText_"+menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth(),100+50*menuItemNumber,50,50,25);

getNextHighestDepth()needs the "()" and add some x,y,width,height numbers.

[berry_lthird]

Originally posted by winterac
This small change:

_parent["menuItem_"+menuItemNumber].createTextField("itemText_"+menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth(),100+50*menuItemNumber,50,50,25);

getNextHighestDepth()needs the "()" and add some x,y,width,height numbers.

Actually, my original code has such parameters, including the "()". I erased them as to make the code more concise.

Regardless, populating those parameters still does not cause the code to work.

[nunomira]

hi berry_lthird,

Your code may be correct...
Make sure that the font color is not the same as the background color as you wouldn't see the text. Also, make sure that it's not another font problem.

There are some things you can simplify, for example:

code:

---

for (var menuItemNumber = 1; menuItemNumber < totalMenuItems; menuItemNumber++)

{

	var temp_mc = _parent.createEmptyMovieClip("menuItem_" + menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth());

	temp_mc.createTextField("someName", temp_mc.getNextHighestDepth(), 100 + 50 * menuItemNumber, 50, 50, 25);

	temp_mc.someName.text = "Test";

}

---

or just

code:

---

for (var menuItemNumber = 1; menuItemNumber < totalMenuItems; menuItemNumber++)

{

	var temp_mc = _parent.createEmptyMovieClip("menuItem_" + menuItemNumber, _parent.getNextHighestDepth());

	temp_mc.createTextField("someName", 1, 100 + 50 * menuItemNumber, 50, 50, 25);

	temp_mc.someName.text = "Test";

	// make sure that everything is correct

	trace(temp_mc.someName);

	trace(temp_mc.someName.text);

}

---

You can use temp_mc because createEmptyMovieClip() returns a refence to the newly create movie clip. This simplifies writing target paths a lot.
In the second line, you're creating a text field only inside the movie clip, so you can use a unique name like someName and you can even use a hardcoded value for its depth. In my opinion,
_parent.getNextHighestDepth() doesn't make much sense, as you're targeting a different timeline from the one the text field is created in.