Question

This is a function in a movieclip called Level

function makeLvl():void
    {//this function will add bells to the stage
        bellTime ++;//increment the time
        if(bellTime >= bellLimit)
        {//if the time for bell creation has been reached
            bellTotal ++;//increase the amount of bells created
            var newBell:Bell = new Bell();//create a new bell instance
            this.addChild(newBell);//and add it to bellHolder
            bellTime = 0;//reset the time for another creation
            bells.push(newBell);
        }
    }

this creates a few children movieclips inside Level.
Now, inside Bell(), I wish to access some variables like this:

parent.bellTotal = 0;

but it says:

Access of possibly undefined property bellTotal through a reference with a static type flash:DisplayObjectContainer

what is this error and why is it stopping my code from working? Thank you

Answer 1

From within your Bell class, try casting parent as a MovieClip, something like:

(parent as MovieClip).bellTotal = 0;

or

MovieClip(parent).bellTotal = 0;

Also I would make sure bellTotal is declared at the parent’s scope, outside of the makeLvl() function.

I don’t see the whole picture with what you are doing, but alternatively you can add a function/variable to the Bell class, and within makeLvl() pass or set a value.

var newBell:Bell = new Bell();
newBell.somePublicFunctionYouDefined(bellTotal);
newBell.somePublicVariable = bellTotal;

For good measure, you might want to also check if MovieClip(parent) == null before accessing any of its properties