Question

Can’t seem to get the value of myXML outside the function, despite being declared outside. What am I missing here? The data loads and traces correctly inside the function.

var myLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
myLoader.load(new URLRequest("flightPlannerBoard.xml"));

var myXML:XML;

// Check XML data fully loaded
myLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, processXML);

function processXML(e:Event):void {

myXML = new XML(e.target.data);
//trace(myXML);
}
trace(myXML);

Answer 1

Because ActionScript is asyncronous as others have said, you cannot control the flow of execution by code placement. What you must do is control execution through the events, and so whatever actions you want to perform with the loaded XML should be in the processXML function or in another function that is called from processXML:

var myXML:XML;

function processXML(e:Event):void {
    myXML = new XML(e.target.data);
    trace(myXML);  //this trace will work
    doNextAction();
}

function doNextAction():void {
    trace(myXML);  //this trace will also work
}