php's list() in actionscript

Question

Is there an equivalent in actionscript of php's list()?

*not easy to google, for quite obvious reasons* – o0'. Mar 24 '11 at 10:38 — o0'., Mar 24 '11 at 10:38

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 01 '12 at 17:00

You don't have an equivalent to list() in AS3.0 and implementing one is really difficult(near impossible).

The primitive types: Boolean, int, Number, String, and uint cannot be (manually) passed by reference and changed via this reference. This is because Flash stores them as immutable objects internally. So when it passes by value it actually passes by a reference but the data cannot be changed(see link 2).

Example:

    var obj:Object = {xy:21,yx:24};
    var num:Number = 24;
    public function Sample():void{

        trace(obj.xy,obj.yx,obj.hey);
        boom(obj);
        trace(obj.xy,obj.yx,obj.hey);
        heya(obj);
        trace(obj.xy,obj.yx,obj.hey);
        nullify(obj)
        trace(obj.xy,obj.yx,obj.hey);
        trace("Testing number");
        trace(num);
        numer(num);
        trace(num);

    }

    function boom(obj1:Object){
        var i:uint=0;
        obj1.xy=34;
        obj1.yx=34;

    }

    function heya(obj2:Object){

        obj2.hey = "hehe";
    }

    function nullify(obj3:Object){

        obj3=null;
    }

    function numer(xz:Number){
        xz=45;
    }

when function Sample() is run we get the following output:

21 24 undefined
34 34 undefined
34 34 hehe
34 34 hehe
Testing number
24
24

Therefore, we can conclude that we can modify an object's properties(add them or change them) but we cannot change the object itself. Also we cannot change a primitive type variable's value.

Function parameters: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ActionScript/3.0_ProgrammingAS3/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7f56.html

Data Types: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ActionScript/3.0_ProgrammingAS3/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7f9c.html