Question

i’m currently using a dictionary to associate a boolean to my (non-dynamic) sprites, but i would like to know if there is a smarter way of doing this? i could just use MovieClips to assign my properties instead of Sprites since MovieClips are dynamic, but i will not be using any of the MovieClip properties or functions so it comes down to a best practice issue.

basically i want to create a state boolean property on my sprites – they are either on or off so my boolean variable is called isOn.

var mySprite:Sprite = new Sprite();
var isOn:Boolean = false;

var dict:Dictionary = new Dictionar();
dict[mySprite] = isOn;

then i will poll my sprite to check its “isOn” property. if it’s on, i will turn it off – or set it to false.

if (dict[mySprite] == true)
   {
   dict[mySprite] = false;
   }

this is the first time i’m actually using dictionaries, so please correct me if i’m using it wrong. and, of course, my original question stands: is this the best way of adding a boolean property to a non-dynamic object?

Answer 1

Can’t you just write your own Sprite that has an isOn property? That seems like a much simpler way to achieve what you want, without using a MovieClip.

isOn could be a public var or a pair of getter/setter if you want to perform some logic when reading/writting it.

public class MySprite extends Sprite {

    private var _isOn:Boolean;

    public function get isOn():Boolean {
        return _isOn;
    }

    public function set isOn(v:Boolean):void {
        _isOn = v;
    }

}

And then:

var mySprite:MySprite = new MySprite();
mySprite.isOn = false;

// at some later point...
if (mySprite.isOn)
{
   mySprite.isOn = false;
}