Variables

Variables allow you to store values that you use in your program. To declare a variable, you must use the var statement with the variable name. In ActionScript 3.0, use of the var statement is always required. For example, the following line of ActionScript declares a variable named i:

var i;

If you omit the var statement when declaring a variable, you get a compiler error in strict mode and run-time error in standard mode. For example, the following line of code results in an error if the variable i has not been previously defined:

i; // error if i was not previously defined

To associate a variable with a data type, you must do so when you declare the variable. Declaring a variable without designating the variable’s type is legal, but generates a compiler warning in strict mode. You designate a variable’s type by appending the variable name with a colon (:), followed by the variable’s type. For example, the following code declares a variable i that is of type int:

var i:int;

You can assign a value to a variable using the assignment operator (=). For example, the following code declares a variable i and assigns the value 20 to it:

var i:int; 
i = 20;

You may find it more convenient to assign a value to a variable at the same time that you declare the variable, as in the following example:

var i:int = 20;

The technique of assigning a value to a variable at the time it is declared is commonly used not only when assigning primitive values such as integers and strings, but also when creating an array or instantiating an instance of a class. The following example shows an array that is declared and assigned a value using one line of code.

var numArray:Array = ["zero", "one", "two"];

You can create an instance of a class by using the new operator. The following example creates an instance of a named CustomClass, and assigns a reference to the newly created class instance to the variable named customItem:

var customItem:CustomClass = new CustomClass();

If you have more than one variable to declare, you can declare them all on one line of code by using the comma operator (,) to separate the variables. For example, the following code declares three variables on one line of code:

var a:int, b:int, c:int;

You can also assign values to each of the variables on the same line of code. For example, the following code declares three variables (a, b, and c) and assigns each a value:

var a:int = 10, b:int = 20, c:int = 30;

Although you can use the comma operator to group variable declarations into one statement, doing so may reduce the readability of your code.

Understanding variable scope

The scope of a variable is the area of your code where the variable can be accessed by a lexical reference. A global variable is one that is defined in all areas of your code, whereas a local variable is one that is defined in only one part of your code. In ActionScript 3.0, variables are always assigned the scope of the function or class in which they are declared. A global variable is a variable that you define outside of any function or class definition. For example, the following code creates a global variable strGlobal by declaring it outside of any function. The example shows that a global variable is available both inside and outside the function definition.

var strGlobal:String = "Global"; 
function scopeTest() 
{ 
    trace(strGlobal); // Global 
} 
scopeTest(); 
trace(strGlobal); // Global

You declare a local variable by declaring the variable inside a function definition. The smallest area of code for which you can define a local variable is a function definition. A local variable declared within a function exists only in that function. For example, if you declare a variable named str2 within a function named localScope(), that variable is not available outside the function.

function localScope() 
{ 
    var strLocal:String = "local"; 
} 
localScope(); 
trace(strLocal); // error because strLocal is not defined globally

If the variable name you use for your local variable is already declared as a global variable, the local definition hides (or shadows) the global definition while the local variable is in scope. The global variable still exists outside of the function. For example, the following code creates a global string variable named str1, and then creates a local variable of the same name inside the scopeTest() function. The trace statement inside the function outputs the local value of the variable, but the trace statement outside the function outputs the global value of the variable.

var str1:String = "Global"; 
function scopeTest () 
{ 
    var str1:String = "Local"; 
    trace(str1); // Local 
} 
scopeTest(); 
trace(str1); // Global

ActionScript variables, unlike variables in C++ and Java, do not have block-level scope. A block of code is any group of statements between an opening curly bracket ({) and a closing curly bracket (}). In some programming languages, such as C++ and Java, variables declared inside a block of code are not available outside that block of code. This restriction of scope is called block-level scope, and does not exist in ActionScript. If you declare a variable inside a block of code, that variable is available not only in that block of code, but also in any other parts of the function to which the code block belongs. For example, the following function contains variables that are defined in various block scopes. All the variables are available throughout the function.

function blockTest (testArray:Array) 
{ 
    var numElements:int = testArray.length; 
    if (numElements > 0) 
    { 
        var elemStr:String = "Element #"; 
        for (var i:int = 0; i < numElements; i++) 
        { 
            var valueStr:String = i + ": " + testArray[i]; 
            trace(elemStr + valueStr); 
        } 
        trace(elemStr, valueStr, i); // all still defined 
    } 
    trace(elemStr, valueStr, i); // all defined if numElements > 0 
} 
 
blockTest(["Earth", "Moon", "Sun"]);

An interesting implication of the lack of block-level scope is that you can read or write to a variable before it is declared, as long as it is declared before the function ends. This is because of a technique called hoisting, which means that the compiler moves all variable declarations to the top of the function. For example, the following code compiles even though the initial trace() function for the num variable happens before the num variable is declared:

trace(num); // NaN 
var num:Number = 10; 
trace(num); // 10

The compiler will not, however, hoist any assignment statements. This explains why the initial trace() of num results in NaN (not a number), which is the default value for variables of the Number data type. This means that you can assign values to variables even before they are declared, as shown in the following example:

num = 5; 
trace(num); // 5 
var num:Number = 10; 
trace(num); // 10

Default values

A default value is the value that a variable contains before you set its value. You initialize a variable when you set its value for the first time. If you declare a variable, but do not set its value, that variable is uninitialized. The value of an uninitialized variable depends on its data type. The following table describes the default values of variables, organized by data type:

Data type

Default value

Boolean

false

int

0

Number

NaN

Object

null

String

null

uint

0

Not declared (equivalent to type annotation *)

undefined

All other classes, including user-defined classes.

null

For variables of type Number, the default value is NaN (not a number), which is a special value defined by the IEEE-754 standard to mean a value that does not represent a number.

If you declare a variable, but do not declare its data type, the default data type * applies, which actually means that the variable is untyped. If you also do not initialize an untyped variable with a value, its default value is undefined.

For data types other than Boolean, Number, int, and uint, the default value of any uninitialized variable is null. This applies to all the classes defined by ActionScript 3.0, as well as any custom classes that you create.

The value null is not a valid value for variables of type Boolean, Number, int, or uint. If you attempt to assign a value of null to a such a variable, the value is converted to the default value for that data type. For variables of type Object, you can assign a value of null. If you attempt to assign the value undefined to a variable of type Object, the value is converted to null.

For variables of type Number, there is a special top-level function named isNaN() that returns the Boolean value true if the variable is not a number, and false otherwise.

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