User Guide

144 ActionScript language elements
See also
/ division operator
. dot operator
object.property_or_method
instancename.variable
instancename.childinstance
instancename.childinstance.variable
Used to navigate movie clip hierarchies to access nested (child) movie clips, variables, or
properties. The dot operator is also used to test or set the properties of an object or top-level
class, execute a method of an object or top-level class, or create a data structure.
Availability: ActionScript 1.0; Flash Lite 1.0
Operands
object : Object - An instance of a class. The object can be an instance of any of the built-
in ActionScript classes or a custom class. This parameter is always to the left of the dot (.)
operator.
property_or_method - The name of a property or method associated with an object. All the
valid methods and properties for the built-in classes are listed in the method and property
summary tables for that class. This parameter is always to the right of the dot (.) operator.
instancename : MovieClip - The instance name of a movie clip.variable — The instance
name to the left of the dot (
.) operator can also represent a variable on the Timeline of the
movie clip.
childinstance : MovieClip - A movie clip instance that is a child of, or nested in, another
movie clip.
Returns
Object - The method, property or movie clip named on the right side of the dot.
Example
The following example identifies the current value of the variable hairColor in the movie
clip
person_mc:
person_mc.hairColor
The Flash 4 authoring environment did not support dot syntax, but Flash MX 2004 files
published for Flash Player 4 can use the dot operator. The preceding example is equivalent to
the following (deprecated) Flash 4 syntax:
/person_mc:hairColor