User Guide

Operators 123
= assignment operator
expression1 = expression2
Assigns the value of expression2 (the parameter on the right) to the variable, array element,
or property in
expression1. Assignment can be either by value or by reference. Assignment
by value copies the actual value of
expression2 and stores it in expression1. Assignment by
value is used when a variable is assigned a number or string literal. Assignment by reference
stores a reference to
expression2 in expression1. Assignment by reference is commonly
used with the
new operator. Use of the new operator creates an object in memory and a
reference to that location in memory is assigned to a variable.
Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0 - In Flash 4,
= is a numeric equality operator. In
Flash 5 or later,
= is an assignment operator, and the == operator is used to evaluate equality.
Flash 4 files that are brought into the Flash 5 or later authoring environment undergo a
conversion process to maintain data type integrity.
Flash 4 file:
x = y
Converted Flash 5 or later file: Number(x) == Number(y)
Operands
expression1 : Object - A variable, element of an array, or property of an object.
expression2 : Object - A value of any type.
Returns
Object - The assigned value, expression2 .
Example
The following example uses assignment by value to assign the value of 5 to the variable x.
var x:Number = 5;
The following example uses assignment by value to assign the value "hello" to the variable x:
var x:String;x = " hello ";
The following example uses assignment by reference to create the moonsOfJupiter variable,
which contains a reference to a newly created Array object. Assignment by value is then used
to copy the value "Callisto" to the first element of the array referenced by the variable
moonsOfJupiter:
var moonsOfJupiter:Array = new Array();moonsOfJupiter[0] = "Callisto";