Question

I cannot figure out what my object instance names are because of how I am generating them and adding them to the stage…

var circles:Array = new Array() //Declare array for displaying multiple objects
function spawn(evt:MouseEvent):void { //MouseEvent trigger, working
 for (var i:int = 0; i<5; i++) { //Run five times
  circles[i] = new circle(); //Make a new circle
  stage.addChildAt(circles[i],1); //Layer control, no problem
  circles[i].x = (stageCenterWidth*Math.random()*5)/(Math.random()*10);
  circles[i].y = (stageCenterHeight*Math.random()*5)/(Math.random()*10);
 }
}

stageCenterHeight and stageCenterWidth are just variables containing the center points of the stage so I do not calculate every time.

I make a new circle every time the for loops runs. However, after this function executes a few times I will call another function who’s purpose is to play frame 2 of the circles all at the same time.

Question: How can I target the circles that I have now spammed all over the screen so that I can use something like circles.gotoAndPlay(2);?

Answer 1

It would go something like this:

for each(var myCircle:circle in circles) {
    myCircle.gotoAndStop(2);
}

UPDATE:
According to your comment, there are many options (different arrays, etc…) but as far as I can tell from what you’ve said, I would create a new container for each batch of circles… spawn() would create a new sprite, add it to the scene, and add all circles from that batch inside that sprite… then, you can change circles by batch:

var lastSprite:Sprite = getChildAt(numChildren-1); // get the latest sprite added to "this" (I suggest not using stage.addChild)
for(var i:uint = 0; i < lastSprite.numChildren; i++) { //for each child of that sprite
   lastSprite.getChildAt(i).gotoAndStop(2); //goto 2
}