User Guide

+ (addition) 71

Usage 3: Variables associated with dynamic and input text fields have the data type String. In the

following example, the variable

deposit is an input text field on the Stage. After a user enters a

deposit amount, the script attempts to add

deposit to oldBalance. However, because deposit

is a String data type, the script concatenates (combines to form one string) the variable values

rather than summing them.

var oldBalance:Number = 1345.23;

var currentBalance = deposit_txt.text + oldBalance;

trace(currentBalance);

For example, if a user enters 475 in the deposit text field, the trace() statement sends the value

4751345.23 to the Output panel.

To correct this, use the

Number() function to convert the string to a number, as in the following:

var oldBalance:Number = 1345.23;

var currentBalance:Number = Number(deposit_txt.text) + oldBalance;

trace(currentBalance);

The following example shows how numeric sums to the right of a string expression are not

calculated:

var a:String = 3 + 10 + "asdf";

trace(a); // 13asdf

var b:String = "asdf" + 3 + 10;

trace(b); // asdf310