Question

I am trying new things with arrays and having some difficulty. I am trying to create multiple instances of 1 class and putting them into an array.

I am creating the instances like so:

public function creatingitem(e:TimerEvent)
    {
    amtcreated = Math.ceil(Math.random() * 4);
    while (amtcreated >= 1)
            {
                amtcreated--;
                var i:Number = Math.ceil(Math.random() * 3);
                switch (i)
                {
                    case 1 :
                        //Object1
                        objectnum = 1;
                        objectwei = 3;
                        r = new Board(objectnum,objectwei,stagw,stagh);
                        addChild(r);
                        fallingitem.push(r);
                        break;
                    case 2 :
                        //Object2
                        objectnum = 2;
                        objectwei = 4;
                        c = new Board(objectnum,objectwei,stagw,stagh);
                        addChild(c);
                        fallingitem.push(c);
                        break;
                    case 3 :
                        //Object3
                        objectnum = 3;
                        objectwei = 4;
                        l = new Board(objectnum,objectwei,stagw,stagh);
                        addChild(l);
                        fallingitem.push(l);
                        break;
                    default :
                        break;
                }
            }
}

Once these are created they check if they collide with the main ball:

        public function hitcheck(e:Event)
    {
        for (var v:int = fallingitem.length - 1; v >= 0; v--)
        {
            if (ball.hitTestObject(fallingitem[v]))
            {
                                 trace(fallingitem[v]);
                if (fallingitem[v] == r)
                {
                    bonusscore +=  100;
                    fallingitem[v].removeitem();
                }
                else if (fallingitem[v] == c)
                {
                    bonusscore +=  75;
                    fallingitem[v].removeitem();
                }
                else if (fallingitem[v] == l)
                {
                    bonusscore +=  75;
                    fallingitem[v].removeitem();
                }

trace(bonusscore);
            }
        }
    }

The issue is I am seeing every item getting hit due to the trace function. Not all instances are meeting the if conditions. As an example I could have 2 “r” instances and when I hit both 1 will go through and add to the score and the other will just continue past. The trace directly following the hitTestObject shows me that both are being hit and registered but I am not sure why it does not add score.

Thank you,

Answer 1

You can’t really have 2 r instances. When you’re creating the instances, if you happen to create 2 rs, the second r = new Board... statement overwrites the reference, and the variable r is referring to the second one. Both objects still exist, but the variable can only refer to one of them, so when you perform the check, you’re ignoring the object that was previously set to r but isn’t any more.

To fix this, you could turn r, c and l into Arrays and whenever you create an instance, add it to the appropriate array. Then, you would perform the check using (r.indexOf(fallingitem[v]) != -1), which returns true if the object is in the array.

The other way, based on the provided code, would be to check whatever value objectnum is setting in the constructor, since you’re setting that value based on whether it’s in the r, c or l category. Though, that won’t work if the property is private or might be changed.