public _parent : MovieClip

A reference to the movie clip or object that contains the current movie clip or object. The current object is the one containing the ActionScript code that references _parent.

Use _parent to specify a relative path to movie clips or objects that are above the current movie clip or object. You can use _parent to move up multiple levels in the display list as in the following:

this._parent._parent._alpha = 20;

Example

In the following example, a button named my_btn is placed inside a movie clip called my_mc. The following code shows how to use the _parent property to get a reference to the movie clip my_mc:

trace(my_mc.my_btn._parent);

The Output panel displays the following:

_level0.my_mc

See also

_parent (MovieClip._parent property), _target (MovieClip._target property), _root property