Question

Edit 3: Alright, I’m lighting up a Windows Server 2008 R2 VM, installing Flex Builder 3, and seeing if I can get a new project to compile and execute properly. News! I got the IDE up and running in the VM and I STILL got the same exact error after the code compiled without issue! Here comes a big, emphatic double you tee eff.

Edit 2: Since this has gotten to be a pretty long post I’ll put this up here. I just went through and deleted each portion of the two problem lines individually and tried to compile after each one, and I got the error every single time. I even deleted everything from within the two DataGridColumns and it still didn’t compile, even though commenting out the two empty <mx:DataGridColumn /> lines will let the program load! This is driving me nuts, can anyone shed some light on this for me?
/Edit 2

I have an AIR application which will apparently compile just fine when I hit F5, but before the app has a chance to load I get the following error:

By commenting out blocks of code I’ve narrowed the problem down to two specific lines.

<mx:DataGrid id="grid1" width="100%" height="100%" editable="false">
    <mx:columns>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Symbol"                      dataField="Symbol"             headerWordWrap="true" width="100" textAlign="left"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Description"                 dataField="FullName"           headerWordWrap="true" width="150" textAlign="left"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Trans"                       dataField="TransactionCode"    headerWordWrap="true" width="75"  textAlign="center"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Quantity"                    dataField="Quantity"           headerWordWrap="true" width="50"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil3"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Execution Date"              dataField="ExecutionDate"      headerWordWrap="true" width="80"  textAlign="center"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Execution Price"             dataField="ExecutionPrice"     headerWordWrap="true" width="65"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil1"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn width="15" backgroundColor="0x888888" dataField="blank1" headerText=""/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Previous Business Day"       dataField="PreviousDate"       headerWordWrap="true" width="80"  textAlign="center"                             itemRenderer="PD5"/>
<!---->     <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Previous Business Day Price" dataField="PreviousDatePrice"  headerWordWrap="true" width="65"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil1" itemRenderer="PD5"/>
<!---->     <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="% Difference"                dataField="PreviousDateDelta"  headerWordWrap="true" width="65"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil2" itemRenderer="PD5"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Source"                      dataField="PreviousDateSource" headerWordWrap="true" width="100" textAlign="left"                               itemRenderer="PD5"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn width="15" backgroundColor="0x888888" dataField="blank2" headerText=""/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Previous Month End"          dataField="PrevMonthEndDate"   headerWordWrap="true" width="80"  textAlign="center"                             itemRenderer="PME5"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Previous Month End Price"    dataField="PrevMonthEndPrice"  headerWordWrap="true" width="65"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil1" itemRenderer="PME5"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="% Difference"                dataField="PrevMonthEndDelta"  headerWordWrap="true" width="65"  textAlign="right"  labelFunction="formatUtil2" itemRenderer="PME5"/>
        <mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Source"                      dataField="PrevMonthEndSource" headerWordWrap="true" width="100" textAlign="left"                               itemRenderer="PME5"/>
    </mx:columns>
</mx:DataGrid>

The two lines are marked with <!---->. If I comment those two lines out then the app will compile, run, and display properly, but if I leave either of them active I get the error above.

What is going on here?

Edit: Additional code as requested –

<mx:CurrencyFormatter id="format1" precision="5" useNegativeSign="false"/>
<mx:NumberFormatter   id="format2" precision="2"/>

And the functions –

private function formatUtil1(item:Object, column:DataGridColumn):String
{
    var Field:Object = item[column.dataField];
    return format1.format(Field);
}

private function formatUtil2(item:Object, column:DataGridColumn):String
{
    var Field:Object = item[column.dataField];
    return format2.format(Field);
}

Next the .as file for PD5 –

package
{
    import mx.controls.Label;
    import mx.controls.listClasses.*;

    public class PD5 extends Label
    {
        private const POSITIVE_COLOR:uint = 0x000000; // Black
        private const NEGATIVE_COLOR:uint = 0xFF0000; // Red 

        override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
        {
            super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
            setStyle("color", (data.PreviousDateDelta >= 5 || data.PreviousDateDelta <= -5) ? NEGATIVE_COLOR : POSITIVE_COLOR);
        }
    }
}

And now PME5.as –

package
{
    import mx.controls.Label;
    import mx.controls.listClasses.*;

    public class PME5 extends Label
    {
        private const POSITIVE_COLOR:uint = 0x000000; // Black
        private const NEGATIVE_COLOR:uint = 0xFF0000; // Red

        override protected function updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth:Number, unscaledHeight:Number):void
        {
            super.updateDisplayList(unscaledWidth, unscaledHeight);
            setStyle("color", (data.PrevMonthEndDelta >= 5 || data.PrevMonthEndDelta <= -5) ? NEGATIVE_COLOR : POSITIVE_COLOR);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Since nothing so far has solved my problem, I decided to sidestep it altogether and port the program in question over to C#. Everything it working well so far.

Lazy answer? Yes.
Lazy solution? Unfortunately no.