How Do You Search An Array?

[ribena_light]

I want to have a button that when clicked will search an array for a word that has been inputted to a text box by the user. Sort of like a spell checker.

I have tried searching this site (tutorials and forums) and have had no luck.

Someone suggested using a text file instead of an array but I have no idea on how to search a text file either.

I'm not new to Flash and I know the basics of Actionscript but I'm finding it very difficult to figure out how to do this and would appreciate some help on the matter.

Thanks.

[bobajobrob]

If your array is called textArray, you can use the following. The variable 'myWord' is set to the string you are looking for:

for (j=0, j<=textArray.length, j++){
  if (textArray[j] == myWord){
    someFunction();
    break;
  }
}

hope this helps you

[Musicman]

Hi,

if your text box is called text, try

if(text.indexOf('word') >= 0)
{	// word appears in text
}

if you have an array of words to look for,

wordlist = ['love', 'letter', 'virus']

for(i = 0 ; i < wordlist.length ; i++)
	if(text.indexOf(wordlist[i]) >= 0)
	{	// ok, found one
	}

Dont expect flsh to be very efficient on that, so checking a long text may get you "running slow" alerts

Musicman

[ribena_light]

Thank you, it works great.

I'm glad I don't have that to bother about now.

The array is going to be quite big so that could pose a bit of a problem.

I'll see how it goes.

Thanks again.

[Musicman]

Hi,

if both the array and the text get big, you should do a few words at a time in a frame loop - or if the words to check are fixed, you could use to a completely different approach where not a list of words is loaded into flash, but rather a table created from the list of words by a separate program

concept of frame loop
1st frame in loop:
ctr = 0;
end = wordlist.length;
2nd frame

for( ; ; )
{	if(text.indexOf(wordlist[ctr]) >= 0)
		// found one
	if(++ctr == end)
	{	nextFrame();
		break;
	}
	else if((ctr % 20) == 0)
	{	prevFrame();
		break;
	}
}

Musicman

[ribena_light]

I might try it with seven arrays.

The game I'm making only allows you to make a words of 3 - 9 letters so I was going to make an array for each word length.

Hopefully that should make it less resource hogging.