Question

How can I set my countdown correctly?

I’m counting from 33,000.00 to zero. It works in a fashion, but the minus operator appears in the textfield.

//Countdown from 33,000.00 to zero
var timer:Timer = new Timer(10);  
var count:int = -3300000; 
var fcount:int = 0; 
timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, incrementCounter);  
timer.start();   
function incrementCounter(event:TimerEvent) {  
count++;  
fcount=int(count);
mytext.text = formatCount(fcount);
}
function formatCount(i:int):String { 
var fraction:int = i % 100; 
var whole:int = i / 100;  
return ("0000000" + whole).substr(-7, 7) + "." + (fraction < 10 ? "0" + fraction : fraction); 
} 

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alt text http://www.ashcraftband.com/myspace/videodnd/nm___.jpg

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EXAMPLE
I need something I can update with XML, to be an up-counter or down-counter depending on the variables.

//Count up from 33,000.00
var countValue:int = 3300000;
count = countValue;

//Count down from 33,000.00
var countValue:int = -3300000;
count = countValue;

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This is all I needed
fcount = Math.abs(count)

Answer 1

To get rid of the minus sign:

// Absolute value of i will be calculated in abs_i.
var abs_i:int = i;
if (abs_i < 0)
    abs_i = -abs_i;

var fraction:int = abs_i % 100; 
var whole:int = abs_i / 100;

To handle the case where you wish to count up, you will have to do things a bit differently. It would be better to have two functions, including a new function named decrementCounter. If you like, there can be an event handler which uses an if (counter < 0) to determine which should be called.

EDIT: On re-reading your code it seems you intended

fcount=int(count)

might solve your problem, but you could call

fcount = Math.abs(count)

and then your “formatted count” would always be a positive value. Then you could ignore the changes I recommended originally, above.

(You don’t need to call int() because count is already of type int, as is fcount.)