Primitive Data Types

1. Primitive Data Types • Boolean Data Type: • It is used in logical operations to represent a certain state. • It could only hold two values: • true • false • Ex) var f2:Boolean = true;

2. Primitive Data Types • String Data Type: • It used to store data as a text ( a sequence of characters). • Ex) “This is some text” • String in flash should be enclosed within double quotation (“”) • Ex) to declare a variable (s) of type String and store “some text” in it: var s:String = “some text”;

3. Primitive Data Types • Each character in a string has an index. • The indices of characters are numbered (0,1,2,3,…) from left to right. • The string characters created in the previous example have indices as follows: s o m e t e x t 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

4. Primitive Data Types • Functions to manipulate string: • charAt(i); • This function returns a character from a string found in index (i) • i: integer number represent an index. • Ex) var s:String = “some text”; trace(s.charAt(2)); // m • indexOf(str); • This function returns the index of the passed (str) within the text. • Ex) trace(s.indexOf(“m”)); // 2

5. Primitive Data Types • length; • Returns the number of characters in the string. • Ex) trace(s.length); // 9 • substr(index,length); • Returns a part of the string as specified in the parameters. • index: an integer gives the starting point of the taken part. • length: the number of characters to take starting at (index). • Ex) trace(s.substr(1,5));// ome t s o m e t e x t 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 index

6. Primitive Data Types • toUpperCase(); • Returns the capital letter representation of the string. • toLowerCase(); • Returns the lower letter representation of the string.

7. String Example • Ex) this example illustrate how to build a flash program to read string value from keyboard, convert it to its capital representation, and print the result in a text field on the stage: • Create a flash file. • Insert a text field on the stage, convert its type to (Input Text) and give it an instance name (txtinput) • When you change the type of a text field to (Input Text), you can insert text values into it at runtime from keyboard. • Giving an instance name to a text fields allow us to access it using action script.

8. String Example • Insert a text field on the stage. Convert its type to dynamic and give it an instance name (txtoutput) • Add a button on the stage. Insert the text (Convert to Capital) in the button. • In the action pane of the button, add the following script: on(press) { var s:String; s = txtinput.text; txtoutput.text = s.toUpperCase(); } To take the text inserted into (txtinput) and assign it to (s) To return the capital letter representation of s. Then assign it to (txtoutput)

9. Global variable • Global variables are visible to every timeline and every scene in your flash file. • To declare (or create) a variable with global scope, use the _global identifier before the variable name and do not use the var keyword. • Ex) _global.myName = “globalvar";

10. Flash Sounds • There are two ways to add sounds to our flash file: • import a sound file (in whatever format the flash editor can handle, e.g. mp3, wav... etc), and pull it onto the stage. • Ex) • create new flash file • Go to FileImportImport to Library • Choose the sound file from your computer, and click open. • You can notice that your sound file was added to your library. • Now, Drag and drop that flash symbol into the stage. • Test the movie

11. Flash Sounds • if you want to have better control in playing the sound file, you may need some actionscripts. • starting and stopping the music by pressing the corresponding button. • Ex) This example illustrates how to control sounds inside flash program. • Open a new file in the Flash • Import a sound file into the library. • MRC on the imported sound(in the library window; you may need to open the library window first), and select linkage on the pop up menu.

12. Flash Sounds • check the export to actionscript option and type the name "mysound" in the textbox. • This will assign an id to the imported sound, so later on the actionscripts can refer to it. • Ok, back to the main stage. Select the first frame on the timeline, open the action window and put the following code in it: var snd:Sound = new Sound();snd.attachSound("mysound"); • Basically, the above code will create a sound object and attach the imported sound file to it. • insert a (play) button in the stage and write the following code in the action pane of it:

13. Flash Sounds • on(release) • {_root.snd.start(0, 10); • } Action is performed when releasing the button _root: to access every object in the main timeline Start(0,10): This will start playing the sound (and loops 10 times) when the button is clicked.

14. Flash Sounds • Repeat step 6 to create the stop button but associated with the following actionscritps instead: on(release){_root.snd.stop(); } Stop(): to stop the sound