Question

So let’s say I have the following code:

public function first(text:String):String {
   _text = text;
   dispatchEvent(event);

   //Want this statement to return the value of _text
   //after handler has finished transforming text.
   return _text;
}

//handles the event
public function handler(event:Event):void {
   //does things, then changes the value of _text
   _text = "next text that first needs to return";
}

How would I make sure the method (first) returns the correct value of _text after it has been transformed by (handler)?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Since ActionScript is single-threaded language and event handlers don’t return value I assume that your code will work if _text is variable in package scope. Next code doesn’t make a big sense, but if you call first function from another class it can be useful

package
{
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    import flash.events.Event;


    public class EventTest extends Sprite
    {
        public function EventTest()
        {
            addEventListener("sliceText", sliceHandler);

            //will be Some
            var newText:String = first("SomeText");
            trace(newText);
        }

        private var _text:String;

        public function first(text:String):String
        {
            _text = text;

            dispatchEvent(new Event("sliceText"));

            return _text;
        }

        protected function sliceHandler(event:Event):void
        {
            //let's slice text to be more valuable
            _text = _text.slice(0,4);
        }

    }
}