User Guide

248 Chapter 6: ActionScript Core Classes
Description
Method; returns a new array that consists of a range of elements from the original array, without
modifying the original array. The returned array includes the
start element and all elements up
to, but not including, the
end element.
If you don’t pass any parameters, a duplicate of
my_array is created.
Example
The following example creates an array of five pets and uses slice() to populate a new array
comprising only four-legged pets:
var myPets_array:Array = new Array("cat", "dog", "fish", "canary", "parrot");
var myFourLeggedPets_array:Array = new Array();
var myFourLeggedPets_array = myPets_array.slice(0, 2);
trace(myFourLeggedPets_array); // returns cat,dog
trace(myPets_array); // returns cat,dog,fish,canary,parrot
The following example creates an array of five pets, and then uses slice() with a negative start
parameter to copy the last two elements from the array:
var myPets_array:Array = new Array("cat", "dog", "fish", "canary", "parrot");
var myFlyingPets_array:Array = myPets_array.slice(-2);
trace(myFlyingPets_array); // traces canary,parrot
The following example creates an array of five pets and uses slice() with a negative end
parameter to copy the middle element from the array:
var myPets_array:Array = new Array("cat", "dog", "fish", "canary", "parrot");
var myAquaticPets_array:Array = myPets_array.slice(2,-2);
trace(myAquaticPets_array); // returns fish
Array.sort()
Availability
Flash Player 5; additional capabilities added in Flash Player 7.
Usage
my_array.sort() : Array
my_array.sort(compareFunction:Function) : Array
my_array.sort(option:Number | option |... ) : Array
my_array.sort(compareFunction:Function, option:Number | option |... ) : Array
Parameters
compareFunction
A comparison function used to determine the sorting order of elements in
an array. Given the elements A and B, the result of
compareFunction can have one of the
following three values:
• -1, if A should appear before B in the sorted sequence
• 0, if A equals B
• 1, if A should appear after B in the sorted sequence