Question

After reading data from XML source I like to be able to show one random item from data whenever, say, clicked a button. I think I can accomplish this by storing the data into an array and use it from the array.
I would like to learn if possible to do it directly from xml without storing it into another array. Thanks in advance

var myXMLLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
myXMLLoader.load(new URLRequest("XML_NOTES.xml"));
myXMLLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML);


function processXML(e:Event):void {
            var loader:URLLoader = e.target as URLLoader;
            var myXML:XML = new XML(loader.data);
            for (i=0;i<2;i++){
            trace(myXML.LEMMA[i]);
            array.push(myXML.LEMMA[i]);
            }

}

Answer 1

You can do this directly from myXML variable, you would need to set myXML as a global variable:

var myXML:XML;
var myXMLLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
myXMLLoader.load(new URLRequest("XML_NOTES.xml"));
myXMLLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML);

function processXML(e:Event):void {
    var loader:URLLoader = e.target as URLLoader;
    myXML = new XML(loader.data);
}

function getRandomItem():XML {
    var elementsCount:int = myXML.LEMMA.length();
    var randomIndex:int = Math.floor( Math.random() * (elementsCount-1) );
    return myXML.LEMMA[randomIndex];
}