User Guide

880 ActionScript classes
hitTest (MovieClip.hitTest method)
public hitTest() : Boolean
Evaluates the movie clip to see if it overlaps or intersects with the hit area that the target or x
and
y coordinate parameters identify.
Usage 1: Compares the x and y coordinates to the shape or bounding box of the specified
instance, according to the
shapeFlag setting. If shapeFlag is set to true, only the area
actually occupied by the instance on the Stage is evaluated, and if x and y overlap at any point,
a value of
true is returned. This evaluation is useful for determining if the movie clip is
within a specified hit or hotspot area.
Usage 2: Evaluates the bounding boxes of the
target and specified instance, and returns true
if they overlap or intersect at any point.
Parameters
x: Number The x coordinate of the hit area on the Stage. y: Number The y
coordinate of the hit area on the Stage. The x and y coordinates are defined in the global
coordinate space.
shapeFlag: Boolean A Boolean value specifying whether to evaluate the
entire shape of the specified instance (
true), or just the bounding box (false). This
parameter can be specified only if the hit area is identified by using
x and y coordinate
parameters.
target: Object The target path of the hit area that may intersect or overlap
with the movie clip. The
target parameter usually represents a button or text-entry field.
Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Player 5
Returns
Boolean - A Boolean value of true if the movie clip overlaps with the specified hit area,
false otherwise.
Example
The following example uses
hitTest() to determine if the circle_mc movie clip overlaps or
intersects the
square_mc movie clip when the user releases the mouse button:
square_mc.onPress = function() {
this.startDrag();
};
square_mc.onRelease = function() {
this.stopDrag();
if (this.hitTest(circle_mc)) {
trace("you hit the circle");
}
};