eval(expression:Object) : Objecteval(expression:String) : Object

Accesses variables, properties, objects, or movie clips by name. If expression is a variable or a property, the value of the variable or property is returned. If expression is an object or movie clip, a reference to the object or movie clip is returned. If the element named in expression cannot be found, undefined is returned.

In Flash 4, eval() was used to simulate arrays; in Flash 5 or later, you should use the Array class to simulate arrays.

In Flash 4, you can also use eval() to dynamically set and retrieve the value of a variable or instance name. However, you can also do this with the array access operator ([]).

In Flash 5 or later, you cannot use eval() to dynamically set and retrieve the value of a variable or instance name, because you cannot useeval() on the left side of an equation. For example, replace the code

eval ("var" + i) = "first";

with this:

this["var"+i] = "first"

or this:

set ("var" + i, "first");

Parameters

expression:Object - The name of a variable, property, object, or movie clip to retrieve. This parameter can be either a String or a direct reference to the object instance (i.e use of quotation marks (" ") is optional.)

Returns

Object - A value, reference to an object or movie clip, or undefined .

Example

The following example uses eval() to set properties for dynamically named movie clips. This ActionScript sets the _rotation property for three movie clips, called square1_mc, square2_mc, and square3_mc.

for (var i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
 setProperty(eval("square"+i+"_mc"), _rotation, 5);
}

You can also use the following ActionScript:

for (var i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
 this["square"+i+"_mc"]._rotation = -5;
}

See also

Array, set variable statement