Question

For example, say I have:

public var usersOnlineArray:Array = new Array(bob,jim,tim,marry,luke);

and when I put that into my datagrid like this:

buddylist.dataProvider = new DataProvider(usersOnlineArray);
buddylist.rowCount = buddylist.length;
bldBuddyList(buddylist);

How could I, let’s say, prevent luke from appearing in the datagrid? Basically make him not appear but technically “still be there” so I can make him reappear later but?

Answer 1

I’d start by using ArrayCollection rather than Array since you can make use of data binding this way.

ArrayCollection also has a filterFunction property that will allow you to hide things but still keep them in the collection. The docs will expand on all of this but the gist is:

Make the ArrayCollection, it just takes plain ole Array in the constructor.

public var usersArr:Array = [bob, jim, tim, marry, luke];

public var usersAC:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection(usersArr);

Set the AC to be the data provider for the List.

buddyList.dataProvider = usersAC;

Define the filter function. This function takes an object and returns true if it should be visible, false if not.

public function myFilterFunction(o:Object):Boolean
{
   if (o.toString() == "luke") return false;

   return true;
}

Then apply this function to the AC.

usersAC.filterFunction = myFilterFunction;

To remove the filter simply null our the filterFunction property.

usersAC.filterFunction = null;