Question

I’m new to programming and apologize up front if I misuse terminology.

In a ‘for loop’ I’d like to add an event listener to a series of buttons. For each button I’d like to define a different function. Is it possible to pass the variable through when the functions are being named?

My buttons all have sequentially named instance names.

Here’s my code:

for (var cBut:int = 1; cBut < 4; cBut++)
{
this["c" + cBut].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, ["orangeValue" + cBut]);
}

And the resulting error:
TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert []@42f50a89 to Function.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

That is saying “Add an event listener to this["c" + cBut]. Listen for MouseEvent.CLICK, and when that happens fire the function new Array( "orangeValue" + cBut ). Arrays can’t handle functions, and the only element in that array will be a String.

What you want is this["orangeValue" + cBut].<whatever function handles click>. (Functions are what are needed to listen to events in AS3. That’s different from AS2). Your best bet is actually to use a helper function too — it guarantees no scoping issues:

for (var cBut:int = 1; cBut < 4; cBut++)
{
    helper( cBut );
}
function helper( cBut:int ):void
   this["c" + cBut].addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, 
                                     this["orangeValue" + cBut].clickHandler);
}