User Guide

Multidimensional arrays 241
Two indexed arrays
When you use two indexed arrays, you can visualize the result as a table or spreadsheet. The
elements of the first array represent the rows of the table, while the elements of the second
array represent the columns.
For example, the following multidimensional array uses two indexed arrays to track task lists
for each day of the week. The first array,
masterTaskList, is created using the Array class
constructor. Each element of the array represents a day of the week, with index 0 representing
Monday, and index 6 representing Sunday. These elements can be thought of as the rows in
the table. You can create each day’s task list by assigning an array literal to each of the seven
elements that you create in the
masterTaskList array. The array literals represent the
columns in the table.
var masterTaskList:Array = new Array();
masterTaskList[0] = ["wash dishes", "take out trash"];
masterTaskList[1] = ["wash dishes", "pay bills"];
masterTaskList[2] = ["wash dishes", "dentist", "wash dog"];
masterTaskList[3] = ["wash dishes"];
masterTaskList[4] = ["wash dishes", "clean house"];
masterTaskList[5] = ["wash dishes", "wash car", "pay rent"];
masterTaskList[6] = ["mow lawn", "fix chair"];
You can access individual items on any of the task lists using bracket notation. The first set of
brackets represents the day of the week, and the second set of brackets represents the task list
for that day. For example, to retrieve the second task from Wednesday’s list, first use index 2
for Wednesday, and then use index 1 for the second task in the list.
trace(masterTaskList[2][1]); // output: dentist
To retrieve the first task from Sunday’s list, use index 6 for Sunday and index 0 for the first
task on the list.
trace(masterTaskList[6][0]); // output: mow lawn